VODAFONE FOUNDATION ALONG WITH PRINCIPAL PARTNER NASSCOM FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS FOR ‘MOBILE FOR GOOD AWARDS 2016’



-          5 Winning NGOs/NFPs receive grants worth INR 7.5 million with mentorship opportunity

-          Awards recognise innovative solutions for mobilizing social change in India

-          Partnership with NASSCOM Foundation, through NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum, maximises reach, attracting a record 306 applications

-          Winners decided by an eminent panel of jurors including 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) among other eminent leaders from across Industries

M4G Awards 2016


·         Focus areas: Health, Education, Agriculture & Environment, Women Empowerment & Inclusive Development, Government Solutions
·         Total Nominations: 306
·         Total Winners: 11
·         Grants for NPO Winners: Rs 7.5 million and mentorship

NPO Category winners
Foundation for Ecological Securities
Composite Landscape Assessment & Restoration Tool (CLART)
Empowers the rural communities for better planning and decision making regarding soil and water conservation.
Centre for Health and Social Justice
Kishor Varta
Communicating meaningful messages through audio stories, contributing to knowledge creation and a shift in discourse around the issues of gender, sexuality and reproductive health.
Score Foundation
Project Eyeway
Making knowledge related to life with blindness available to people  from all over the country through a helpdesk.
Amar Sewa Sangam
AMAR SEVA mVBRI PROJECT
Using technology to train parents to provide early intervention therapy in their own homes to children with disabilities.
Pratham Books
Missed call do, Kahaani Suno
Promote reading acquisition
among children by providing millions of underserved children with easy access to good quality,
affordable audio books in Indian languages to introduce the joy of learning through stories to them.
Government category winner
NOHP-NHM Tamil Nadu
Oral Pre Cancer Screening Programme
The goal of oral cancer screening is to identify mouth cancer early, when there is a greater chance for a cure.
NPO – Special Mention
Sankalp Taru Foundation
Plant, Geotag and Track Trees using SankalpTaru G1 Mobile App
Empowering people by making tree plantation convenient through the use of the mobile.
For Profit category winners
I Exist Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
Samwad- Two Way Interactive Platform
Delivery of financial awareness & social security awareness / services at affordable costs to sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society.
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.
Quadio Labs Pvt. Ltd.
Qplus Hearing Aid App
Using digital signal processing technology to allow hearing impaired individuals to hear normally
Akshamaala Solutions Pvt Ltd
Unnati
Unnati” is a service targeted at farmers. This helps bring efficiencies to the overall agriculture value chain using Data science.
Krishna Kant Tiwari
Ausodhatmika
Providing right Information during Medical Emergency thereby bringing Transparency and Bridging the Information Gap Digitally.

New Delhi, Nov 19, 2016: Vodafone Foundation along with principal partner NASSCOM Foundation , announced the winners for 6th edition of its flagship initiative ‘Mobile for Good Awards’ at a grand event in Delhi. 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.

VODAFONE FOUNDATION ALONG WITH PRINCIPAL PARTNER  NASSCOM FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES WINNERS FOR   ‘MOBILE FOR GOOD AWARDS 2016’


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
About Mobile for Good Awards
The Mobile for Good Awards aim to recognise, promote and support mobile innovations for driving social change in India. Since 2011, we have recognised 36diverse NGOs & social enterprises in India. Winning NGOs receive critical funding & mentorship. The Awards are back for the sixth consecutive year in2016. The M4G 2016 Awards will recognise 11 winning mobile solutions in 2 categories that are addressing issues in education, women empowerment & inclusive development, agriculture & environment, health, government solutions.

The Mobile for Good Awards 2016 initiative is led by the Vodafone Foundation; Principal Partners are NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum ; Grant Thornton India LLP as Knowledge Partners and NextGen as Mentorship Partners.

About Vodafone Foundation
Over the last 25 years, the Vodafone Foundation has focussed on combining Vodafone’s expertise with the company’s charitable giving to do social good in the world.  As Vodafone’s reach continues to expand, moving from mobile to connectivity, there are greater opportunities for the Vodafone Foundation to harness these advancements for the benefit of society

Through our vision of  'Connecting for Good', the Vodafone Foundation is committed to improving lives and driving social change across the world. We aim to utilise our global experience and domain expertise to maximise India’s socio-economic development through our superior network, technology and people. We are committed to helping address some of India’s most pressing challenges related to education, equality and access. Aligned to Government of India’s mission of ‘Digital India’ we will invest in high impact projects that are scalable and harness relevant technologies to achieve key sustainable development goals.

Vodafone Foundation in India stands committed to invest in the three critical areas of women empowerment, education and agriculture. All our programmes focus on harnessing relevant technology solutions for greater productivity and impact.

In countries in which Vodafone operates, a unique footprint of 27 Vodafone Foundations operate to deliver our social investment programme. These programmes are directed and chosen by the Foundation Trustees and receive funding from the Vodafone Foundation in the UK as well as their local Vodafone company. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.in/foundation

About NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum
In line with NASSCOM Foundation's vision of enhancing lives through technology, the NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum (NSIF) identifies, Awards, showcases and supports innovative initiatives that have used Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for positive social impact. NSIF provides ecosystem support to social innovators, to aid and enhance the development and reach of technology based solutions. With an aim to address the key gaps in inclusive development, NSIF focuses promoting solutions on education, skills development, health, financial inclusion, disaster management and Assistive Technologies (for Persons with Disabilities). Through this platform, NSIF, aspires to build a systematic commitment to social innovations and inspire change-makers in Corporates and Not-For Profits to leverage technology to deepen social impact. For more Information, please visit, https://nasscomfoundation.org/get-engaged/nasscom-social-innovation-forum.html

Grant Thornton India LLP

Grant Thornton India LLP is a member firm within Grant Thornton International Ltd which is one of the world's leading organisations of independently owned and managed accounting and consulting firms which presence in+130 countries, having +700 offices and with +38,500 consultants/ employees.

Grant Thornton India LLP with its presence in 11 major cities in India (Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida and Pune), is a leading firmproviding assurance, tax and advisory services to privately owned, not for profit organisations, public listed and public sector clients and help them find solutions to their business. Within the Advisory practice, Grant Thornton India LLP has a dynamic team of professionals dedicated to Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) (Climate Change & Energy, Quality, Environment Heath, Safety, Social, CSR & Energy, Sustainability & Social Responsibility, Third Party Audit and Assurance Services) perspective of businesses and compliance thereof.

NextGen

NextGen, previously incubated at NSRCEL, IIM-Bangalore and TBI, BITS-Pilani is one of India's fastest growing cleantech companies. NextGen operates in 6 countries with Fortune 500 clients across 16 different sectors. NextGen's passionate team from the best universities across the globe delivers innovative and best in class solutions across sectors and geographies. The genesis of NextGen was from a research paper developed at BITS-Pilani when the Founders were students then. NextGen evolved into two broad domains of Sustainability Management and Waste to Energy.

Appendix A: 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, listeners choose 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.