Washington: An Indian American Silicon Valley entrepreneur has launched a unique initiative designed to get techies to volunteer their time to develop software and applications that will benefit people in India and other developing countries.

The initiative dubbed "Code for India" was launched yesterday by Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist Karl Mehta.

"As a firm believer in the power of crowd sourced and open sourced technology, we have created Code For India to provide tools to fight day-to-day public service issues," Mehta told reporters.

"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," he said.

"The transformative power of technology will aid India -- and other developing countries facing similar problems," said Mehta at the launch of Code For India, a non-profit organization based in Mountain View, California.

Though starting small, Mehta has huge ambitions. His audacious goal is to get a million programmers across the globe to donate their time.

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