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'Smart Rickshaw' Mobile App Wins Innovation Prize

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  • 'Smart Rickshaw' Mobile App Wins Innovation Prize

    'SMART RICKSHAW' MOBILE APP WINS INNOVATION PRIZE

    Digital Opportunity Channel
    http://www.digitalopportunity.org/news/2018smart-rickshaw2019-mobile-app-wins-innovation-prize
    May 18 2012

    India's Aadhar Bhalinge is the winner of m2Work, a World Bank-sponsored
    online challenge seeking the best ideas for spurring the job-creation
    potential of mobile phones.

    The m2Work competition organized by Nokia and infoDev, a World Bank
    innovation and technology entrepreneurship program, drew a total of
    939 ideas, 96% of which came from developing and emerging economies.

    m2Work, which stands for mobile microwork, aims to expand microwork
    to the 5 billion mobile phones in the developing world. Currently,
    millions of people supplement their income through microwork-small
    digital tasks they can perform online.

    Bhalinge convinced the high-level jury of World Bank, Nokia, UKaid,
    and other private sector representatives of the development impact,
    novelty, and feasibility of his "Smart Rickshaw Network" to take home
    the US$ 20,000 grand prize. His tool would crowd-source maps at a
    very low cost in developing nations by employing fleets of rickshaw
    drivers to feed live traffic updates into a subscription service.

    Bhalinge and the five other finalists all received business
    coaching during the finals. The other finalists' ideas touched on
    environmental conservation, access to health care and education,
    and social publishing.

    "The diversity of ideas submitted demonstrates that we are beginning
    to tap into the potential of combining access to technology in
    the developing world with innovative ideas to help solve critical
    development issues. It was inspiring to see the participants'
    creativity and passion for effecting change", said Stephanie von
    Friedeburg, the World Bank Group's Chief Information Officer and
    chair of the jury.

    Second place went to Armenia's Alexander Shakaryan, whose
    "MicroForester" app would aid reforestation projects. Nadia
    Millington and Luis Rosenthal got an honorable mention for "3MD:
    Mobile Diagnostics" which would allow paraskilled technicians to
    perform disease diagnosis tasks on patients' digitized scans.

    Research by infoDev has highlighted the potential of microwork.

    Studies by the ICT industry project tell that mobile data traffic
    in developing countries will grow by 80% per year, based on improved
    devices and networks.

    For co-organizer Nokia, m2Work underlined the power and job-creation
    potential of mobile innovations. "All six finalists tell the powerful
    story that mobile technology is not only about being entertained or
    about consuming-it is also about earning," said jury member Esko
    Aho, Nokia's Executive Vice-President for Corporate Relations and
    Responsibility. "All of these ideas were about sustainability, so
    direct social impact was the key to our decision," he added.

    m2Work is supported by UKaid. infoDev, as part of the World Bank
    Group, will use its vast network of Mobile Applications Labs (mLabs)
    and business incubators to help the finalists develop their seed-stage
    ideas into viable start-ups that can create sustainable jobs.

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