MOSIP grows ecosystem, builds for the future with Create and Decode competitions

New solutions and an enthusiastic next generation of digital ID developers are the ultimate proof of success for the competitions run by MOSIP in 2024. The winners of each were announced on Tuesday during the first day of MOSIP Connect 2025 in Manila, Philippines.

MOSIP CTO Ramesh Narayanan presented the winners of both events during a series of presentations on the morning of the first day.

The Decode hackathon was open to students from around the world, Create was open to professionals. The goals of the two competitions differed, as MOSIP Head of Engineering SasiKumar Ganesan and Product Manager Resham Chugani explained to Biometric Update in an interview on the sidelines of the event.

Decode was intended to help inspire students to engage with digital ID, in the contributing to the next wave of developers and technology professionals who can further the MOSIP’s mission, Ganesan says.

Create, on the other hand, was intended to bring solutions to the market. Ganesan points out that professionals who build solutions are motivated to market them, and if successful also tend to inspire imitators, or competition.

“People find ways of marketing it, find ways of telling the story,” Ganesan says.

This process builds up the technology ecosystem with tools to address the needs of governments building out digital ID and the services that depend on them.

The first attempt may not be the final answer, but can be the domino that touches of a chain reaction; at the end, a country can evaluate which of the emerging options is the right one to serve its needs. “The idea of Create is the first step towards that: create,” Ganesan explains. “It kick-starts the process.”

The juries differed accordingly. Submissions to MOSIP Decode were judged by members of the MOSIP leadership and academy team, whereas Create was judged by representatives of Carnegie Melon University, IIIT Bangalore and the Aapti Institute, which researches the impact of technology and society on each other.

Both initiatives make the project more sustainable, Ganesan points out. It builds the next set of MOSIP solutions, and growing the next generation of developers. Further, the addition of more solutions creates opportunities for governments to realize savings or revenue that can keep systems running and fund expansions.

“Decode is about enthusiasm,” Ganesan says.  “Let’s work together, use the national ID, see if you can influence something. Some of them may become entrepreneurs. They get motivated in Decode to reach the next stages.” Create on the other hand, “is purely business.”

This implies that some of the Create winners will be implemented before long. Ganesan is confidant this will be the case.

MOSIP Decode 2024 ran from September 13 to January 15 of this year, while Create started on September 5 and closed the same day as Decode.

The Create initiative

MOSIP received more than 1,450 registrations, leading to 123 active engagements, 19 of which made it across the finish line.

Teams were tasked with addressing specific themes, including “financial inclusion through digital identity,” “eKYC for inclusive identity verification” and “credential facilitation for empowerment.”

The top solution chosen, developed by Integra Micro Systems, addressed the financial inclusion theme with a MOSIP integration of a “National ID Based Transaction System (NIBTS).” Integra’s MOSIP integration for a paperless onboarding system, addressing the eKYC theme, took third.

Egovernments.org took second place for the same theme with an eSignet integration for “integrating eKYC for enhanced identity verification In DIGIT health campaign management.” Fourth were Educerts and Interrait with a credential facilitation solution for Inji integration of authorized service technicians took fourth, and Educerts on its own came fifth with another credential solution for employment letters for overseas workers using verifiable credentials and the Inji digital wallet.

All received a solution showcase at MOSIP Connect, as well as a display at the organization’s Experience Center and Marketplace, collaboration opportunities and certificates of commendation as VCs.

The Decode hackathon

There were 233 submissions to Decode, from which 6 finalists were chosen. Paid internships were offered to all members of the Decode winning and runner-up teams.

A team from NIT in Jamshedpur, India won first prize for their development of an optical character recognition (OCR) system for digital forms. Subhash Murmu, Rishabh Parihar and Chaitanya Khangai will take home $3,000 to go with internships and certificates of commendation.

The runners up were awarded for their technologies to support multiple Inji user profiles on shared devices and a WhatsApp-based notification system specifically for MOSIP. The teams from Polaris School of Technology at Starex University in Hyderabad, India and the Polytechnic University of the Philippines, respectively, will each get internships and certificates of commendation.

The first day of the three-day event also featured keynote addresses from the leaders of MOSIP and the Philippines identification systems, parallel tracks of lively panel discussions. Time was also dedicated to exploring the technologies brought to Manila by over 40 biometrics and digital identity providers.

 

Follow all our coverage from MOSIP Connect 2025.

 

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  Integra Micro Systems  |  MOSIP (Modular Open Source Identity Platform)  |  MOSIP Connect 2025  |  MOSIP Create  |  MOSIP Decode  |  open source  |  research and development