Innovative mobile apps that won the 2015 Vodaone Mobile for Good Awards

The Vodafone Foundation in India recognizes the power of mobile technology to address some of India’s most pressing challenges relating to education, health, equality and access.

TA Team Dec 7, 2015

In mid-2015, a number of innovative mobile app solutions registered themselves for the Vodafone’s Mobile for Good (M4G) Awards. Few of them were shortlisted a few months ago. Finally, the most awaited time of the year arrived with the awardees being conferred the Vodafone M4G award.

The award had two categories:

Leading Change Maker – NPO Category
Leading Change Maker – For profit category

Each of these categories had to have best-practice mobile technology related innovations across four defined sub-categories of education, women empowerment & inclusive development, health and agriculture & environment.

5 innovative mobile apps were chosen to be awarded under the two categories.

The Winners under NPO category:

‘Apps for Good’ by Earthwatch Institute

Apps for Good is a project initiated by the Earthwatch Institute. This app aims to address the issue of environment conservation logical and an engaging experience. The innovation includes 4 apps:

Bird Find
Butterflies & Bees
Tree Watch
Pollinators

All these apps are very interactive and enables user to read about the varied flora and fauna they come across and also report their sightings.

The mobile apps is expected to reach about 2, 00,000 young people countrywide by March 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT8FAe3skg8

‘Vidya Helpline’ Nirmaan Oragnisation

Vidya Helpline an innovative mobile app from the Nirmaan Organization supports students in career counselling and providing guidance for right jobs and careers. The app mainly caters to the people of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Nirmaan Organisation recognized the challenge faced by majority of government school students unable to gain access to career counselling and guidance.

Through Vidya Helpline – a toll free tele service – the organization provides excellent, accurate and timely guidance. In the near future Nirmaan wishes to extend its outreach to all the Government schools in this region.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lr5Ek2ayqw

‘Kahani jindagi ki’ by NEEDS

With the belief that an informed citizen can make right choices and decisions NEEDS to up the project to come up with ‘Kahani jindagi ki’ (Stories of life) – an app that is dedicated for the poor adolescents. The app educates them on the issues of gender, sex and sexuality. Micro SD-cards have been launched, through which the same information can be accessed on the mobile phones as educative chips. Approximately 360adloscents from 23 villages of Deoghar district, Jharkhand have benefitted from this app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZRXsxk6NwA

Gpower by CINI

The app focusing on girl power is an innovative mobile app aimed at empowering the lives of adolescent girls at risk. Using real-time features, the vulnerabilities of adolescent girls are tracked and simplifies the girls’ access to flagship government services for improving their well-being across four pillars, education, protection, health and nutrition.

The app has been successful in saving over 200 girls from trafficking with 500 beneficiaries in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sg1Gv5ypfGs

Enhancing Sustainable livelihoods of Rural Women by VIDYAL

VIDYAL uses mobile phone to deliver training in farming and livestock management thereby converting a mobile from merely being a communication tool to an educational one. Lives of 20,000 people have been impacted so far in Theni district of Tamil Nadu so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP36F7JulB4

‘SCM FPS Status’ by National Informatics Centre

This app has increased transparency and effectiveness of PDS at the ration shops of Andhra Pradesh. With this app all ration card holders can check the availability of stocks in fair Price Shops and go collect it. With this foolproof system the Government of Andhra saves abot 1300 crores and 29,000 Fair Price Shops with 3.8 crore people have been benefitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkWqSqVSftE

Winners under For Profit Category

‘DeHAAT App’ by Green Revolution

DeHAAT app provides low cost end to end services to farmers. The app provides important information to farmers via mobile phone, who have registered themselves. This way farmers engage themselves in smart farming techniques and reap good profits. Currently there are 5700 farmers, across 6 districts of Bihar and 1 district of Odisha, benefitting from this innovative solution.

Courtesy: www.facebook.com/green.agrevolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kts9OUeLkU0

‘Hippocampus Information System’ by Hippocampus Learning Centers

The application helps in tracking and monitoring the performance of both children and teachers. An application form an organization which offers affordable education to poor children between the ages of 3-6; has benefitted over 11, 000 students across 214 villages in Karnataka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYDPLC5Edok

‘SAS Poorna Arogya Program’ by SAS Poorna Arogya Healthcare

A community based, technology driven healthcare programme – SAS Poorna Arogya Program is a web based mobile app which can be used to file medical claims without a computer effortlessly. Over 2,00, 000 members have got outpatient care and 13, 000 members have received treatment from the states of Karnataka and Assam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYfLSZGHlqU

‘Himmat’ by Smart cloud InfoTech

This mobile app which aid the Delhi police as through this app alerts can be sent to Delhi Police Control room in case of and emergency. Through the app over 8,000 cases have been registered and they have had over 1,00,000 downloads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQhU8NA6k6A

‘BioAvert’ by Swasti

The app which is available in multiple languages, provides important information on crop protection to farmers. The app is interactive and enables farmers to share their queries and participate in polls that provide material for research in the field of agriculture. This project also has a huge environmental impact. The app has an outreach of over 1,000 farmers in the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpd-090mRxs

Special Mention

‘Akshar’ by Sumit More

This e-learning android app provides elementary education in the mother – tongue of the Madia tribal people of Maharashtra. More than 8,000 children have benefitted with this app in 120 villages in Maharashtra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHH4OlQ6fLI