8/3/2019 Manthan Awards 2011 - Digital innovations for the larger good - 1

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www.livemint.com20MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011, DELHI

TechnologyMANTHAN AWARDS

Digital innovations for the larger goodBY GEETIKA RUSTAGI

geetika.r@livemint.comNEW DELHI

inners of the Man-than Award, South

Asia, which seeks toencourage start-ups using in-formation and communicationtechnology (ICT) for social de-

velopment, were announcedon Friday.

This year, the competitionreceived 510 nominations fromIndia and neighbours such as

Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangla-desh and Sri Lanka. Of these,110 projects were selected tocompete in categories such asgovernance, health, educationand learning, inclusion, infra-

structure, travel and tourism,environment, communitybroadcasting, entertainment,agriculture and livelihood, lo-calization, news and media,science and business and en-terprise.Mint is the strategic partner

of the award.Successful projects ranged

from television stations educa-ting students in war zones to

websites aiding rural entrepre-neurs gain access to funds, ap-plications that help farmers getcrucial and timely informationto initiatives that encouragemen to end domestic violence.

Some of the prominent win-ners were:

Product: Rang DePromoter: Ram N.K., RangeDe.Org,Bangalore

Category: e-inclusionRang De is a web-based mi-

crocredit platform that helpsrural entrepreneurs from lowincome households gain ac-cess to funds. Investors aretypically individuals or compa-nies that put up a minimum of`100 to start with.

Register on RangDe.org andchoose borrowers to investmoney, which is disbursed viafield partners.

We realized that there is afantastic repayment rate andon the other hand a low inter-

est rate in the microcreditfield. We had to bridge the gapand hence, came Rang De,

says Ram N.K., founder andchief executive officer.

Any social investment is anon-secured loan and repay-ment time is generally one tot wo y ears . T he p ro ce ss istransparent as investors can goonline and track investmentsand borrowers.

It is not a charity; the inves-tor will get returns on his in-

vestment at 2% flat per annumif the loan is not defaulted. Ei-ther you can choose the optionof auto invest or confirm a

withdrawal, N.K. says.

The organization has dis-bursed `6 crore to 11,000 bor-rowers invested by 3,100 indi-

viduals and 20 companies. Available in 13 states, the or-ganization has seen fewer than1% withdrawals.

Product: Pashto TVPromoter: Liwal Ltd, Kabul,AfghanistanCategory: e-news & media

Pashto TV of war-torn Af-ghanistan broadcasts studymaterial based on the formalcurriculum of Kabul schools.The free-to-air channel isavailable on satellite televisionand local cable networks. Stu-

dents who cant access videobroadcasts can just listen tothe audio learning series or ac-

cess it on the Internet.With the current condition

of Kabul, proper schooling isvery difficult and uncertain. So we thought lets bring theschool to kids. Hence we start-ed our own free-to-air channelcalled Pashto TV, says N.R Li-

wal, president, Liwal Ltd,which runs the channel.

Children can watch a 15-m in ut e l es so n e ve ry d ay broadcast morning and even-ing for three days. Students aregiven special books to follow

while watching the video. Theycan take exams at the varioustest centres spread across thecity and move ahead in thecurriculum. The medium of in-struction is Pashto.

It eliminates the need of areal teacher, Liwal says. Youcan complete a whole standardin less than `1,000 and (thereis) also no need of going to aschool. Initial investment isabout `20,000 and the per cap-ita cost for teaching kids dras-tically comes down.

The project went live in 2010after six years of research.

The company is now work-ing on lessons in Arabic, andplans to provide material inEnglish, Hindi, Urdu and Farsitoo. It is also looking for col-laborations with schools andcommunity radio stations inIndia and other countries.

Product: Pirulu

Promoter: Sri NimalPadmakumara, Jayasri Radio, SriLanka

Category: e-culture & heritageProverbs are an important

part of any dialect, reflectingthe cultural mores of a society.But Sri Ninal Padmakumara,

who has 30 years of experiencein journalism and televisionand radio anchoring, saysmany proverbs are dying as the

younger generation does notknow how to use them.

H e h a s c ome u p w i th aunique method of preservingSinhalese proverbs in the formof audio stories available onthe Internet.

I felt that as people move tourban areas, the usage of theseproverbs and idioms is disap-pearing slowly and the young-er generation doesnt think it is

relevant. So, I thought to putthem together in the form ofsmall audio stories and use the

web to spread the word, Pad-makumara says.

He has already digitized1,000 proverbs in this way. I

went to villages; spoke to el-derly people; visited librariesand acade mician s, askedabout the origins of the prov-erbs and validate them with

written records and books,Padmakumara adds.

The website has been creat-ed to familiarize children withthe tales. According to Padma-kumara, its the only one of itskind for Sinhalese proverbs.He is still researching and re-cording more proverbs to add

to his vast collection.

TURN TO PAGE 21

Beyond classrooms: Members of the team that built Pashto TV, a free-to-air educational channel in Afghan-istan that won the award in the e-news and media category at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.

RAMESH PATHANIA/MINT