JICA's Transport Stack Open Innovation Challenge Successfully Concluded; 5 Winning Teams to Now Launch PoCs in Delhi Transport Ecosystem

BusinessWire India
New Delhi [India], February 17: Delhi Transport Stack, in collaboration with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), led the successful conclusion of the 'Transport Stack Open Innovation Challenge' on 3rd February 2025. Supported by MeitY Startup Hub, the challenge was launched in November 2024 and aimed to build upon the 'Delhi Transport Stack'. A novel DPI initiative, the Transport Stack enables data interoperability for development of innovative services and creates a unified, accessible transport ecosystem. The challenge's ecosystem partners include leading players of Delhi transport ecosystem such as DMRC, DTC, DIMTS, IIIT Delhi & Chartr, with Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) - IIT Delhi as the organizing partner and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) as knowledge partner for the challenge.

The Innovation challenge received an overwhelming response with 300+ submissions in Round 1 from academia, researchers & startups across India, of which the top 10 teams were selected for the Pitch Day over multiple rounds. During the course of the challenge, capacity building workshops, open house sessions with ecosystem partners and 1:1 mentorship sessions with industry veterans were also organized to support participants in shaping their solutions into tailored value propositions.

The challenge culminated with the Pitch Day hosted in IIT Delhi campus. The first half of the day included keynote sessions by senior dignitaries including Takahashi Akito (Senior Representative, JICA India), Yushi Nagano (Head - JICA DXLab), Sujith Nair (Founder, FIDE - BeckN Protocol) and Shri Sachin Shinde (IAS, Special Commissioner, GNCTD & MD, DTC), each offering valuable perspectives on importance of data driven innovation for the future of mobility, with DPI/DPGs enabling the shift from data silos to data synergy.
Speaking about the crucial role of data in driving transformations in transport ecosystem, Shri. Sachin Shinde, IAS, Special Commissioner, GNCTD & MD, DTC, stated, "Public Transport Operators like DTC / DIMTS often face challenges in getting readily available granular information impeding meaningful inferences & rational decision making. I'm very impressed by the kind of solutions presented by Transport Stack & the teams participating in the challenge and think that these will give effective solutions to improve public transportation & help PTOs in a real manner. I am eagerly awaiting the implementation of solutions that are selected here."
A panel discussion on the vision ahead for the mobility landscape in India & how to drive successful collaborations between government, academia and private players for urban transport innovation, featured insightful conversation between distinguished speakers including Dr. Amit Kumar Jain (Director - Operations & Services, DMRC), Dr. Inder Gopal (CEO, IUDX), Alok Lall (COO, Microsoft India & South Asia), Dr. Pravesh Biyani (Founder, Chartr) & Yushi Nagano, and was moderated by Abhik Chatterjee (MD & Partner, BCG).
"The future of mobility is to provide integrated solutions to commuters and with that spirit, the one word I would use to describe Transport Stack is that it's a 'necessity'. And to achieve this integrated ecosystem, it is essential to nurture a 'Coopetition' environment - a combination of collaboration & competition, where all players come together to build a collaborative solution & shape the future of transport," stated, Dr. Amit Kumar Jain, Director - Operations & Services, DMRC.
Speaking about the challenge, Yushi Nagano, Head of JICA DXLab, stated, "Transport Stack aims to unlock innovation by making data discoverable, accessible & easy transferable with secure privacy design. The innovation happening in Delhi today will be replicated tomorrow in other global cities & it is you who will carry out this innovation ecosystem. We are excited to see the kind of innovations coming up on the Data exchange platform, and I really believe that Digital Public Infrastructure will lead to wider Digital Public Intelligence - DPI to DPI, & elevate its meaning. The time has come - now is the crucial time to innovate further, drive transformation and we are very happy to welcome the teams to carry forward this innovative journey together."

In the second half, the top 10 teams pitched their solutions to an esteemed jury, of which 5 winners were selected. The winning teams are Bravecore Private Limited which is developing smart video-based surveillance system to enable safety in transit, Carnot Research Private Limited - building solutions related to personalized multilingual conversational AI agent to enhance inclusivity, Nuverse which has an AI-powered video-based health monitoring platform for drivers, Papli Labs Private Limited which creates dashcam-based virtual digital copy of roads for better infrastructure mapping, and Transit Intelligence which is building solutions for AI enabled optimized public transport operations planning.

Leveraging the Transport Stack as a foundation, these winning teams will undertake a PoC implementation of their innovative solutions in the Delhi transport ecosystem. To facilitate them in detailed product development and proof of concept implementation, the winning teams will also get access to a total grant of USD 100K, as well as a prestigious incubation program at FITT - IIT Delhi, enabling access to best-in-class facilities and ongoing mentorship for enhancing their offering to market.
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