Vodafone Foundation along with principal partner Nasscom Foundation announces winners for ‘Mobile for Good Awards 2016’

‘Mobile for Good Awards’ at a grand event in Delhi graced by the presence of Smt Aruna Sundarajan, Secretary Ministry of Electronics and IT, committed to mobilising social change by leveraging the power and potential of the mobile technology, the Mobile for Good Awards acknowledge and support ideas and concepts from NGO/NFPs that effectively and efficiently empower communities and change lives in their own unique way.

This year, 11 winning innovations were recognised across two categories – ‘Leading Change Maker – NPO’ and ‘Leading Change Maker – For Profit’. Innovative mobile driven solutions in four critical areas of Health, Education, Agriculture & Environment and Women Empowerment & Inclusive Development were selected from both the categories. A special award was also given to the best Government led innovative mobile solution.

The five winning NPOs, were also awarded INR 1.5 million each and will be mentored by the best in the industry to expand and upscale their capacity, improve project monitoring and enhance impact evaluation of their projects. All winning projects will also be featured in, first of its kind – ‘Social App Hub’ by Vodafone.

 Reflecting on this year’s winning innovations, P Balaji, Director- Regulatory & External Affairs, Vodafone India, said, “Telecom transforms lives with connectivity. At Vodafone, we are committed to bringing internet, broadband and connectivity to citizens across the country and support the larger vision of Digital India. Ideas that are translating this vision into reality must be supported and scaled-up. The near ubiquitous reach of the mobile phone offers a unique opportunity to connect, engage, develop content and deliver solutions that drive positive social and economic change, even in regions and among communities otherwise difficult to reach. The ‘Mobile for Good’ awards programme is our endeavor to do so.  Over the last 6 years, we have acknowledged 36 innovations, that use mobile technology to address some of India’s critical social and developmental challenges both in rural and urban areas. We are excited with the opportunities ahead and will continue to reward and mentor new ideas, innovations and applications that empower communities and have the potential to transform society at large.”

Nasscom Foundation is Principal Partner for the   Vodafone Foundation Mobile for Good Awards The partnership in its second year, was able to garner great of amount of national awareness leading to a record – 306 nominations received to date, bettering last year numbers by approximately 25 percent.

Shrikant Sinha, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, said, “NASSCOM Foundation, in its quest to create a truly inclusive India, has been at the forefront of promoting the use of technology for social good. In Vodafone Foundation, we found an apt partner to strengthen the ecosystem for social innovation through the mobile phones. This collaboration, for the Mobile for Good awards 2016, is an extension of the vision of the two organisations, to transform lives through affordable and easily accessible mobile-based solutions and drive inclusive growth.”

 Out of the 306 applications received, the eligible applications were evaluated carefully at the first Screening Committee meet consisting of senior representatives from Vodafone Foundation, NASSCOM Foundation, Grant Thornton, NextGen and other experts in the field.

 The 23 selected Finalists, with 15 applications from the NPO category (including government) and 8 applications from the For Profit category, were then asked to make presentations of their projects in front of a Grand Jury Panel, consisting of eminent members from leading organisations across India such as Bhagyashree Dengle  (Executive Director – Plan India), Patu Keshwani (Chairman & MD – Lemontree Hotels), Rajiv Makhni (Managing Editor – Technology, NDTV) Rahul Chandra (MD – Helion Ventures) and Tom Thomas (CEO – Praxis) who finally narrowed it down to 11 Winners listed below:

 Through these awards, structured mentorship and critical funding, both organisations hope to see an unparalleled transformation in the challenges afflicting the country today and are confident of making a transformative impact through the Mobile for Good program in the coming years.

For more information about the Awards, to apply and read about the past winners and their successful applications, please visit www.vodafone.in/mobileforgood

Mobile for Good Award 2016: Winners information

Leading Changemaker – NPO Category

Foundation for  Ecological Securities – Composite Landscape Assessment & Restoration Tool (CLART)

The Composite Land Assessment and Restoration Tool CLART has been developed to assist village level functionaries to appropriately identify, plan and design structures based on recharge potentiality, land use land cover and slope. The tool is designed to empower the rural communities for better planning and decision making. This decision support  tool takes into account the recharge potentiality derived from lithology, drainage and slope along with landuse and landcover to provide a colour coded map interface for easy understanding by even illiterate or semi literate people. The efficacy of this plan has been demonstrated and tested through preparation of detailed project report (DPR) for more than 30000 ha across 3 districts in Rajasthan and in developing plans for 4 panchayats in Chikaballapur under the Papagni River Rejuvenation program.

Centre for Health and Social Justice – Kishor Varta

A series of 10-15 minutes audio stories in Hindi revolving around captivating fictional characters were conceived and professionally recorded. Each deals with a prevalent social issue and focusses on the role of men and boys in particular to initiate positive change. Through the use of a digital IVRS platform the stories could be heard by dialling a toll free number widely disseminated in the project area. For a story to move ahead, listenerschoose from several options so it’s a two-way communication. Also, questions related to issues discussed in the stories can be recorded, to be later answered through SMS keeping the user confidentiality in mind. In the past three months 50,000 calls were registered with the programme’s toll –free number 1800 11 2013. Of these, 6000 callers have had a deeper engagement through giving their feedback and responses to the programme.

Score Foundation – Project Eyeway

Primary service provided under Project Eyeway is that of a national help desk. The helpdesk has one toll free number which people from all corners of India can call. Though people call one number, they can speak to visually impaired counsellors in local languages and get relevant solutions for their queries and concerns. As a platform, Eyeway is a one-window access that brings together a rich treasure trove of resources. We use technology solutions like a cloud-based telephony routing system along with the internet to create an accessible platform for people spread across India. In the last 10 years, the organisation has directly reached out to 16,000 people. Given the substantial number of persons living with blindness across India, Eyeway evolved into a network of 6 like-minded organizations in December 2015. Since then, in just the last 6 months, they have reached out to 4000 people spread across the country with varied linguistic, cultural and socio-political backgrounds.

Amar Sewa Sangam – AMAR SEVA mVBRI PROJECT

The rehabilitation experts, with the help of computer programming centres will design simple and user-friendly tablet based apps which focus on topics such as gross and fine motor development, speech and language skills, and feeding techniques. Travelling Community Rehabilitation workers will be armed with tablets containing these apps which they will use to train parents in rural communities. Parents will be taught about their child’s development and trained to provide early intervention therapy.     Tablets will also be used to relay important information back to physio/ speech and occupational therapists at our centre, who will watch videos of these children and make recommendations for treatment. Video conferencing using existing satellite internet networks will enhance treatment by providing caregivers with immediate feedback from therapists. The impact has been over 353 children with improved health care and 1272 caregivers have been educated in providing early intervention therapy in their homes.

Pratham Books            Missed call do, Kahaani Suno

The project is centered on distributing audio stories through mobile phones. Mobile phones exist in most Indian households today and can be a powerful and scalable distribution medium.The campaign is called ‘Missed Call do Kahaani  Suno‘ and it entails a child giving a missed call to a number and s/he would get a callback to be able to listen to an audio story. Missed Call’ is a term recognised across languages and demographics and at zero-cost to the beneficiaries; it formed the foundation for the very successful pilot program that we have already tested in Delhi. So far, 37,000 missed calls were received from 3500 numbers and 2500 children listened to 35,000 stories in 5 days.

Sankalp Taru Foundation -Plant, Geotag and Track Trees using SankalpTaru G1 Mobile App

SankalpTaru G1 application provides everyone a mobile platform to plant trees from anywhere in the world at a location they desire with just a few clicks. This helps the planter far away to connect to the environment as they could in no other way as well as support the livelihood of the poor farmers. It also gives opportunity to every single individual to play their role of contributing to the planet by neutralizing their carbon footprint, which they can calculate on this application. As SankalpTaru G1 application is not only used for the online planters but also by the villagers who plant trees for them, they are well trained to use this technology, and due to simplicity of the application, they are able to upload images and use the GPS location for each plant. There have been Beneficiaries: 22,000+ , 500+ Green Schools

Government Solutions winner

NOHP-NHM Tamilnadu       Oral Pre Cancer Screening Programme

It is a GPS enabled device which can give a virtual summary of the whole proceeding in real time. One hand held device will be handled per PHC ( for both the Dental Surgeon & Dental Assistant ) during the hands-on training & both were trained to use the hand held device . It has paved way to revolutionise the way health care will be provided to our citizens in future. The reliability and quality of the data as the data is online & ease of access to the Administrators/Planners to monitor and take timely immediate actions are its  key strengths. The project scope is entire Tamil Nadu State covering all 6900+ villages. The present coverage of the project includes 32 districts and has the user base of 293 Dental surgeons and 293 Dental assistants.

Leading Changemaker: For Profit Category

I Exist Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. -Samwad- Two Way Interactive Platform

Interactions are done over SMS / IVR / Android Mobile App chat. It is an interactive platform and the system sends adaptive communication based on customers response. Content is structured in an adaptive way so that the end users finds it interesting and engaging.

Software stack includes Postgress, SQL Server as database. Application tier with NGNIX / G-Unicorn and client with IE, Chrome, Firefox. Reports with Pentaho Enterprise Version. Further programming languages with application on python, Django, Celery and Pentaho. Digital literacy impact assessment covering more than 1,10,000 users  on pan India basis.

Callystro Infotech Pvt. Ltd. – CoBELS

CoBELS is a one of a kind learning solution that maps the scholastic and co scholastic skills prescribed by the curriculum into engaging games. These games can be blended into the formal learning system to provide a real life context to concepts learnt in class. Learners can carry out actions, see the results of their actions and can make corrections while learning a concept. Its a self paced non intrusive solution that helps learners learn at their own pace without the fear of failure. Available across several platforms, the solution is scalable across geographies. It reduces the need for extensive Teacher Learning Materials for teachers and does not provide technological burden to the teachers. It additional provides support for teachers to be able to create online assessments and assignments thereby, handling user progress thereby reducing their load. The framework provides the flexibility to support multiple languages and add any new competency whenever required. Callystro holds the unique distinction of gamifying almost anything – right from hard financial skills to algebra to practical geometry! Over 55000 users using the product. Schools in Delhi NCR region in partnership with Nucleus Foundation.

Quadio Labs Pvt. Ltd. – Qplus Hearing Aid App

Quadio’s Q+ hearing App converts any iOS or Android smartphone into a Hearing Aid. Our software harnesses the processing power of smartphones and uses digital signal processing technology to allow hearing impaired individuals to hear normally. The app can conduct a precise hearing test that provides accurate diagnosis of the degree of hearing loss. It uses these test results to provide near exact compensation for hearing loss at different frequencies, creating a customized hearing experience. The App can be downloaded for free besides being discreet. The App can be downloaded from anywhere- so people without access to Audiologists can do a self-assessment of their hearing loss. Users can call our resident audiologists and also get a free specialist consultation. The App is free. People who cannot afford a traditional hearing aid can use this app on basic smartphones. The App is discreet. It looks like the user is using their hands-free kit, as opposed to a stigmatizing hearing aid. In just a short span of 4 months the organisation has received more than 10,000 installs.

Akshamaala Solutions Pvt Ltd – Unnati

Unnati is a service targeted at farmers. This will help bring efficiencies to the overall agriculture value chain using technology as an enabler. Every aspect of the complete farming ecosystem is being built over a digital backbone. Data science will be used for helping improve the efficiencies across the farming lifecycle.The app can be either directly used by farmers or they can visit their local “Unnati Farm Centers” (UFC). UFC are local youth who operate centers in villages. These youth use Unnati app to order provisioning of inputs and to post the output requirement along with farm equipment (to be launched). Unnati Farm Centers (UFC) are local youth run virtual centers for demand and supply aggregation. They provide local logistics and collection support services. Unnati focuses on training of UFCs to deliver services, support collections etc. Coverage in the districts of Agra, Mathura,Hathras, Bulandshahar.

Krishna Kant Tiwari  – Ausodhatmika

Ausodhyatmika is a social service android application that provides information about healthcare and is specific for people of India. The application uses Google map to display search results and has provision to make Calls, send SMS, Email and open Website. Users can register as Blood Donor/Recipient. Users can also register Hospitals, Clinics, Nursing Homes, Pathology Labs & Diagnostics, Pharmacies and Veterinary Hospitals for system of medicines such as Allopathy, Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and Unani. Users can provide feedback and update on registered units Geo-Location.The Application provides “Report Abuse” feature wherein users can inform about false information/unlawful activities. Verification of such abuse when confirmed blocks the users from misusing the application forever. It alsoprovides Emergency Helpline Numbers National and State wise. These helplines numbers are meant to deal with specific situations and hence is very useful in need. 20,000+ downloads across India since inception that would have impacted 100,000 plus people