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Law firm Nishith Desai & VC Tim Draper launch digital nation hackathon
MUMBAI: The geopolitical map is getting a digital makeover, and it’s not just another crypto pipe dream. Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper and legal eagle Nishith Desai have joined forces to launch the e-Tibet Hackathon—an eyebrow-raising attempt to create the world’s first truly digital nation.
Unveiled in Bengaluru on 22 March, the initiative brings together coders, policy wonks and entrepreneurs to build what amounts to a nation-state that exists entirely in the cloud. One might call it governance without the geography.
Throughout history, humanity has continuously tinkered with the concept of statehood. The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 gave us sovereign nation-states with their territorial obsessions. The Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 redesigned global finance while maintaining physical borders. Now Draper and Desai are betting that 2025 will be remembered as the year nations began to exist primarily as strings of ones and zeros.
The hackathon participants aren’t merely playing SimCity with higher stakes. They’re building blockchain-based governance systems, AI-driven legal frameworks, and smart contract public services. It’s like creating an entire government IT infrastructure, minus the government buildings and grumpy civil servants.
“We are witnessing a fundamental reimagination of governance and national identity,” gushes Draper Startup House founder Vikram Bharti. “Just as Westphalia formalised nation-states and Bretton Woods reshaped financial systems, Draper Nation is setting a new precedent, one that will outlive us all.”
Desai adds: “Traditionally, states are bound by geography, requiring physical land and territorial governance. But nations, built on shared values, culture, and identity, can transcend borders. This hackathon proves that digital nations can foster futuristic economic, legal, and social cohesion without physical boundaries.”
The choice of Tibet as the prototype for this digital experiment carries obvious political overtones, though the organisers have been careful to frame it as a technological rather than a geopolitical endeavour. China, which claims Tibet as its territory, may have thoughts on a virtual alternative popping up in cyberspace.
Whether e-Tibet will join the ranks of history-altering innovations or become another footnote in the long list of tech-utopian fantasies remains to be seen. But one thing is certain—the old adage about “no man’s land” might soon need updating to “no man’s bandwidth.”
eNews
Paisabazaar launches Credit Premier League 2.0
Nationwide campaign rewards highest credit scores with Rs 1 lakh top prize.
MUMBAI: When credit scores become a national league, even your CIBIL report starts feeling like it’s playing in the IPL and Paisabazaar has just kicked off the second season. Paisabazaar, India’s leading marketplace for financial products and the country’s largest free credit score platform, has announced the return of the Credit Premier League (CPL) 2.0, a fun, nationwide initiative to recognise and reward individuals with the highest credit scores.
Building on the success of the first edition, CPL 2.0 introduces higher rewards and broader participation. The individual(s) with the highest credit score in the country will win Rs 1 lakh, while state champions will each receive Rs 10,000. Additionally, all participants from the winning state, the one with the highest average credit score will also be rewarded.
All winnings will be credited directly to winners’ PB Wallet, allowing them to pay credit card bills, recharge mobiles, or settle utility bills seamlessly on the Paisabazaar platform.
Paisabazaar CEO Santosh Agarwal said the campaign aims to make credit awareness more engaging and mainstream. “With CPL, we are bringing together engagement, gamification and rewards to make conversations around credit scores more mainstream,” he noted. “Our focus remains on building a financially aware and credit-healthy Bharat.”
The first edition of CPL saw over 5.5 million participants, with the highest individual score touching 861. Delhi recorded the highest average credit score of 746.
Consumers can participate simply by checking their free credit score on the Paisabazaar platform or app. The CPL leaderboard and rankings will be available exclusively on the Paisabazaar App.
In a country where financial dreams are serious business, Paisabazaar has found a smart way to turn credit scores into an exciting game – because when your financial health gets rewarded, everyone wants to play.
