According to an official statement, ICICI will offer over 50 APIs (Application Programme Interface) from ICICI Bank and its group companies namely ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and ICICI Securities. As a first, payment APIs from 'Visa' and the 'Unified Payment Interface' API from NPCI will also be available for the app development challenge. Visa and NPCI are the partners of the Appathon.
Using these APIs, participants will have to create innovative working prototypes of mobile applications that provide a superior customer experience.
The statement quoting Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank said, “ICICI Appathon will allow us to foster innovation and tap into the minds of the most innovative developers. With India being among the top three Internet users in the world, mobile banking is witnessing an exponential growth. It is also bringing about a shift in consumer preference wherein they want innovative solutions on the go. Through the ICICI Appathon, we want to broad-base and leverage on the innovative ideas and the talent in our developers, technopreneurs and technology start-ups. We believe such programmes will encourage young developers to create world-class banking applications on mobile and will strengthen the Government's 'Digital India' mission. We hope to get ideas for some exceptional apps at the end of this development challenge.”