This blog includes my experience with C4GT and the things I learned in the process.

About Me

I am Mohammad Sarfraz Alam, a final-year student at Jamia Millia Islamia. I got accepted to C4GT under Beckn.

Code for Govt. Tech(C4GT)

The primary objective of the Code for Gov. Tech(C4GT) is to establish a sustainable open-source community. It’s a unique program aimed at creating India’s first active open-source community of coders. I discovered C4GT through one of my connections on LinkedIn. After looking more into C4GT projects, I saw Beckn as a part of C4GT which caught my attention.

Benefits of joining C4GT

The selected contributors who successfully complete the C4GT program get the following rewards and prizes:

• Stipend: Contributors who are accepted into C4GT receive a stipend of INR 1 Lakh, paid in two installments over the course of the program.
• Certificate of completion.
• Mentorship and networking opportunities: C4GT provides contributors with the opportunity to work with experienced mentors and connect with other developers.
• Access to in-person DPG meet-ups: Don’t know much about it yet. Looking forward to it ^.^.
• Potential future opportunities: Successful completion of C4GT may lead to future job opportunities in the form of PPIs and PPOs.

Why I chose Beckn?

I have been learning about the ins and outs of Beckn before C4GT when Namma Yatri was on the hotline. I really liked the concept of Beckn to digitalize modern commerce and started looking more into it. At the same time, C4GT was also introduced which aligned with my goals.

About Beckn

This took me a while to understand, but here it is in short.

Beckn protocol is a set of specifications consisting of APIs, data models, reference architecture, transaction mechanisms, and global standards that when adopted by digital platforms, enable the creation of decentralized networks.

It consists of three major platforms

• Beckn Provider Platforms (BPPs)
• Beckn Gateway
• Beckn Application Platforms (BAPs)

Beckn Provider Platforms (BPPs)

BPP is a software platform that allows providers to deploy themselves to be a part of a beckn network. BPP Beckn is based on the Beckn Protocol, which is an open specification defined to develop a backend to be expanded to an open network.

Beckn Gateway

A Beckn Gateway (BG) is a software application that facilitates communication between Beckn Application Platforms (BAPs) and Beckn Provider Platforms (BPPs).

Beckn Application Platforms (BAPs)

BAP is a software application that provides consumer services to the end-user. It takes advantage of beckn’s open network infrastructure to offer integrated experiences that, seamlessly to the consumer, aggregate services from different sources which can reside on different networks.

This blog is more of C4GT contributors, so I’m attaching some resources where you can look more into Beckn if you’re interested:

• Beckn Overview Playlist
• Beckn Specification Reference

C4GT | Beckn

Beckn had around 13 Project ideas listed on their GitHub wiki. Out of these, I picked three projects that caught my interest, namely BPP Boilerplate & UI, Scaling and Resilience Implementation(DSEP Beckn) nd Decentralised Health Protocol.

The proposal included a brief overview Beckn Protocol followed by a detailed analysis and solution of the project idea. Proposal was also followed by a detailed timeline as to how you will divide your work during the period. You can find the Sample Proposal attached below:

Here are a few tips that helped me write the proposal:

• Write as clean and in-depth as possible : Your proposal should show that you have a good idea of the project and know how to build and architecture the application.
• Your solution should also show on how you will be planning to work on the idea during that period : This shows that you have the the solution in mind and are ready to implement during the period.
• Avoid writing basic definations : That’s my personal opinion. Just that, for example, if you’re working on implementing some new framework in the project idea. It’s not worth it to just add long definations that are just copy-paste from google. Mentors can see that 👀.

For more help, I’d say the structure was kind of similar to GSoC, to you can also checkout my gsoc blog here.

C4GT Community Program

If you’ve read till here. I would like you to introduce you to the C4GT Program 2023. It is dedicated to building a sustainable ecosystem around Digital Public Goods (DPGs). Goal is to facilitate long-term collaboration and innovation within the fast evolving DPG ecosystem.

To be a part of the C4GT Community Program, you can head over to https://codeforgovtech.in/community-projects to get started and be a part of the community!

Conclusion

Lastly, I was selected for UI + BPP Boilerplate Project.

But I believe that, whether you’re rejected or selected, open-source programs like these help you to push your limits and learn new things. For me, it was a very new learning experience with different technologies, models, and more.

And as always,

Open Source is not a competition, but a collaboration.

Enjoy the process. Have fun!

Here’s my proposal link : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BWIrZ0G-nwYkth14N8ntsqn0935RpafX/view?usp=sharing

Feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarfraz-alam-113575201/