Competition Guidelines & Standards
Rules & Evaluation Rubric.
Review the institutional regulations, the 7-criterion evaluation rubric, and mandatory deliverables for the challenge.
Rules of Engagement
Code of Conduct & Technical Rules.
Originality and Intellectual Honesty
All proposals must represent original student work developed for this ideathon. Any external frameworks, academic research, or reference architectures must be clearly cited and documented in your proposal.
AI Tools and Assistance Fully Permitted
The use of artificial intelligence tools, large language models, and AI design or coding assistants is completely permitted. Participants are welcome to use AI for brainstorming, architecture design, diagrams, and proposal drafting. Evaluation prioritizes conceptual depth, structural soundness, and your ability to defend your design.
Ideathon Focus and Documentation Rigor
As an ideathon, teams are evaluated purely on conceptual depth, innovation, and documentation quality: architectural clarity, implementation roadmap, security modeling, and feasibility. Working code builds or prototypes are not required.
Simulated Security and Theoretical Safety
Proposed architectures must adhere to sound security practices. Designs should focus on verifiable architectural frameworks without referencing live banking credentials, real production UPI accounts, or sensitive private keys.
Team Composition and Eligibility
Teams may comprise 1 to 4 student members. Interdisciplinary participation combining software engineering, cybersecurity, economics, and design is encouraged. Cross-year and inter-departmental teams are permitted.
Open Technology Freedom
Participants are free to design solutions around Algorand, conventional cloud and mobile architectures, other Web3 frameworks, or hybrid setups. Algorand is highlighted for its sub-cent fees and instant finality, but evaluation is strictly technology-neutral.
Feasibility and Real-World Viability
Blueprints should be practical and viable within the Indian financial landscape. Propose solutions that account for regulatory compliance, user adoption in diverse demographics, and operational economic feasibility.
Scoring Framework
7-Criterion Evaluation Framework.
Problem Understanding
Clarity, depth, and relevance of the identified digital payment bottleneck in the Indian economic context.
Innovation and Uniqueness
Novel application of cryptographic rails, smart contracts, or automated systems departing from routine solutions.
Technical Implementation
Architectural soundness, system flow clarity, protocol feasibility, and practical technology stack selection.
Security and Privacy
Attention to secure authentication, replay attack defenses, key management, and data privacy safeguards.
Feasibility and Viability
Real-world implementability in India's payment ecosystem, economic viability, regulatory alignment, and adoption readiness.
User Experience (UX)
Usability, simplicity, low friction for non-technical users, and accessibility for rural and grassroots citizens.
Potential Impact
Scalability, economic feasibility, alignment with Viksit Bharat 2047, and practical value for citizens and small businesses.
Documentation Standards
Mandatory Submission Requirements.
Full names of 1 to 4 team members, department, semester, primary email, and phone number.
One member must be designated as the primary point of contact for all official communications.
A concise, descriptive title representing your solution.
Keep the title clear and memorable, avoiding vague or overly generic names.
Specification of the digital payment challenge chosen (from the curated tracks or Open Innovation).
Explain why this problem matters for financial inclusion or security in India and identify affected users.
A structured explanation of your technical approach, business logic, and user workflow.
Highlight how your design improves upon existing payment rails like standard UPI, cards, or paper vouchers.
System flow diagram, data flow model, sequence diagram, or workflow diagrams.
Provide clear visual or schematic representations showing how data and transaction state move through the proposed solution.
List of programming languages, frameworks, blockchain rails (Algorand AVM, AlgoKit, Python), APIs, and databases.
Explain why this specific technology stack was chosen and how it ensures performance and cost efficiency.
Identification of security risks, attack surfaces, and protective measures implemented in your design.
Address private key security, transaction signing integrity, replay protection, and regulatory considerations.
A structured execution roadmap, feasibility analysis, economic viability, and deployment considerations.
Outline how the idea can be realistically implemented in India, addressing scalability, operational feasibility, and adoption challenges.