Karl Mehta, Venture Partner at Menlo Ventures and a recognized Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur, announced the formation of Code For India (CFI), a global community of software engineers to build technology to solve developing world problems. With India as the test-bed, CFI (www.codeforindia.org.) proposes to build tools that will help solve problems on the ground and to give communities the power to help themselves.


"Code for India's use of technology will promote transparency, participation and efficiency in the way local people can voice their concern and find solutions. The transformative power of technology will aid India and other developing countries facing similar problems," points out Mehta. Mehta has over 20 years of experience in building and funding technology companies including his venture PlaySpan Inc. sold to VISA Inc. in 2011. He was awarded 'The Entrepreneur of the Year' for Northern California by Ernst & Young in 2011. Mehta has even served as a White House Presidential Innovation fellow under the Obama Administration.


Software engineers from Microsoft, Google, eBay, VISA and Facebook have volunteered in developing social awareness apps in the first phase of Code for India. The organizations TiE Silicon Valley, TiE Mumbai, TiE New Delhi and The Morpheus Fund have partnered to encourage their large network of tech community members to get involved.


CFI has already released its first couple of activities, "Adopt a School" app that helps access student performance data and "Spotter.in", a web application that makes reporting of civic infrastructure problems simple for citizens, are the latest initiatives by the organization. The company works with the Mantra "Think Local, Hack Global".