SFLC.in, in collaboration with FOSS United hosted its nationwide Hackathon 2025 from October 31 to November 2, 2025 on the theme of Defending Digital Freedom. The three-day event brought together 67 teams of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) advocates, professionals, and students from across India, creating a vibrant space for innovation, learning, and collaboration.
A Nationwide Celebration of Digital Freedom
The hackathon challenged participants to design community-driven, open-technology solutions that support digital freedoms while strengthening India’s growing FOSS ecosystem. Beyond competition, the event reflected a shared vision: positioning India as a global hub for open-source innovation and inspiring a generation of developers committed to transparency, accessibility, and shared progress.
Sponsorship & Community Support
Our hackathon was made possible through the generous support of our sponsors and collaborators. FOSS United supported the event through sponsorship, enabling us to bring together developers and innovators to build meaningful open-source solutions.
We also appreciate the support from Unstop, that allowed us to list and promote the hackathon on their platform under their non-profit criteria, helping us reach a wider audience of enthusiastic participants across the community.
Mentorship from Leading FOSS Experts
The Participants received guidance from an esteemed panel of FOSS and technology professionals, including
- Akshay S. Dinesh (Co Founder, actionforequity.in)
- Kannan V.M. (FSCI Community Member)
- Devashish R. Purandare (Software Engineer 2, Microsoft)
- Ambady Anand (Senior Software Engineer, Accion Labs)
- Akshit Tyagi (Member of Technical Staff, LambdaTest)
- Kathara Sasikumar (Linux Foundation Kernel Fellow & Debian Maintainer).
Their mentorship facilitated that the projects were technically robust and socially impactful.
Judging and Recognition
The judging panel featured leaders at the forefront of digital rights and technology entrepreneurship. Ms Mishi Choudhary, Founder of SFLC.in and Senior VP & General Counsel at Virtru along with Mr Faisal Farooqui, Founder & CEO of MouthShut.com judged the event . They were supported by Mr Poruri Sai Rahul, CEO of FOSS United, reinforcing the hackathon’s commitment to India’s FOSS community.
The Winners of Hackathon 2025 were:
- First Place: Team Hoax for Blackout, a tool tracking censorship incidents in India to promote transparency and accountability online, led by Rishabh Sharma.
- Second Place: Team Why So Serious? for their Dynamic Internet Shutdown Tracking System, developed by Saran Kumar, Santosh Kumar, and Pradeepta, designed to map and analyse digital disruptions in real time.
- Third Place: Team StackOverHack, comprising Pranav Sharma, Shreeya Banerjee, and Sousnigdha Das, recognised for their innovative contributions to the FOSS community.
Fostering India’s FOSS Ecosystem
SFLC.in highlighted that the hackathon embodied the spirit of open collaboration and knowledge sharing that defines India’s FOSS movement. By empowering young developers to build solutions for the public good, the organisation continues to foster a more inclusive, transparent, and self-reliant digital future for India. It was also a reflection of incredible talent and ingenuity of participants from across India who showcased how technology can be harnessed to address real-world challenges, like tools for tracking censorship or systems ensuring internet transparency.
The event underlined SFLC.in’s mission to promote free and open-source software, strengthen digital public infrastructure, and nurture a sustainable technology ecosystem powered by collaboration, community, and shared innovation. Hackathon 2025 was more than a competition; it was a celebration of creativity, community, the promise of digital freedom, and a more accountable digital landscape.
The Hackathon was widely covered in various publications like Danik bhaskar, Virat Vaibhav, APN news, Indian Education Diary and Passionate in Marketing
