What is "kumbathon"

Kumbhathon is a year-round innovation sandbox that has created a platform to identify and address the challenges of the 2015 Kumbh Mela in Nashik, with a broader vision to address similar issues in developing countries across the world. Dr. Sachin Pachorkar is the brain behind Kumbhathon and Kumbha Foundation. The initiative was conceptualized by Sunil Khandbahale, an innovator of Nashik and Dr. Ramesh Raskar, Head of Camera Culture Group, MIT Media Lab and has now grown to involve a wide cross section of people both inside and outside Nashik including scientists from MIT, students from across India, experts from industry, the police and Nashik Municipal Corporation among others. MIT Media Lab initiated the concept. Kumbathon's goal is to create new 'Impact Entrepreneurs' via an open innovation platform. The multi-year platform Kumbha.Org now spans areas in health, transportation, payments, food, civic issues, housing and so on. The event also aims to create an accelerated environment to produce tangible results through the joint collaboration of hands-on innovators and industry experts. The group have more than 500 responses on its open, crowd-sourced platform that ask the public to identify key areas of concern. There is a long list down to 12 target themes that included health, housing, food, payments and transportation Nashik is an ideal city to study and test the stresses of urbanization and what can be done to prepare for it. The city is the 16th fastest-growing metropolis in the world and one of the fastest-growing in India.