Awarding innovative solutions for social change

To encourage nascent talent and innovative mobile solutions from NGOs and Non-Profit Organisations in India, Vodafone Foundation organised the fifth edition of ‘Mobile for Good Awards 2015’ (M4G Awards), in partnership with NASSCOM Foundation.

The programme saw a turnout of many social mobile innovators, app creators and members of various organisations. The M4G Awards focus on sectors such as health, education, agriculture women empowerment, government solutions, etc.

The awards will recognise innovative solutions for social change across the country. A funding grant of Rs 6 million is allocated, of which, Vodafone Foundation will provide Rs 1.2 million to five winning NGOs/NPOs.

The event on Thursday showcased two NGO projects which were winners in M4G 2014 – Swayam Sikshan Prayog Health Services and Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action (SRIJAN). Dipika Prasad, and David Hogg, Chief Sustainability Officer – Livelihoods, Naandi Foundations.

The discussion was moderated by Rumi Mallick, VP, NASSCOM Foundation. Discussing the challenges in designing services, Sanjay Kamtam, founder CEO, Votary Softech Solutions, said, “Today we are talking about apps but only about 300 million mobile phones in India are smart phones and 700 million are not. This ‘Mobile for Good’ is for the 700 million. The challenge for app developers is to create something for that segment of non-smart phone users.”

Dipika Prasad, manager – strategy consulting, Intellecap, announced that the organisation in collaboration with Facebook will be holding training workshops for tech developers that want to design for non-smart phone users. This will be held at the Facebook office on July 16. The final winners of M4G Awards 2015 will be announced on December 3 at New Delhi.