8/3/2019 Manthan Awards 2011 - Digital innovations for the larger good - 2

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TECHNOLOGY 21MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011, DELHI WWW.LIVEMINT.COM

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Product: CoCubes.comPromoters: CoCubes.com, GurgaonCategory: e-business & enterprises

Connecting, colleges andcompanies are the 3 Cs ofCoCubesan online studentengagement and campus re-cruitment platform.

Set up by two alumni of theIndian Institute of Technology

(IIT), the website helps bridgethe gap between companiesand colleges in smaller citiesand towns.

It is like a cleartrip of re-cruitment drives where you goonline and fill in the criteriaand job requirements; it willgive options; select the colleg-es that match your query at theclick of a mouse, forward yourrequest to placement co-ordi-nator at the institution. That ishow simple it is, says AnandSubramanian, manager, mar-keting and communication atCoCubes.

Students take an online testset up by the company beforethey get hired. Companies caneven provide offer letters

through the website, obviatingthe need to visit the institutethey are hiring from.

Instead of charging compa-nies, CoCubes charges collegesfor registration. A college hasto pay in lump sum or `1,000per head. But we need everystudent to be registered withus. We are here to provide alevel playing field to every can-didate, adds Subramanian.

CoCubes also provide tech-nological support for campusplacements, even at collegesnot registered with it. But ac-cording to Subramanian, regis-tered users have an advantage.

About 2,000 colleges haveused this platform to look for jobs for 700,000 students.

Around 300 companies haveused it for hiring, includingCognizant Technologies,Mphasis, Accenture, Voltas Ltdand iGate Patni.

Product: aapRainPromoter: Reazaul Karim,BangladeshCategory: Infrastructure

AppRain is a Web develop-ers delight, being one of thefirst few officially released

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open source content manage-ment frameworks. It is anunique engineering concept where the content manage-ment system (CMS) and rapiddevelopment framework workon the same platform.

The biggest problem facedby developers is that they haveto redevelop common moduleswhile building a site separatelyfor CMS and the framework.But with this tool, the duplicityof coding can be avoided.

It helps in two critical ways.Firstly, it lets you build a web-site quickly and secondly, it re-duces the development timeand cost drastically, says Rea-zaul Karim, founder of appRain.

Users can simply downloadappRain and start working. It issup po rted o n the ApacheHTTP server, the most widelyused tool for website develop-ment. The best part is that us-ers can customize the outputaccording to niche require-

ments.I have released six version

of appRain and am also work-ing on other modules. Initially,standardizing the project was alittle difficult, and I faced a lotof criticism also. But now I amvery proud of the fact that it isrecognized in the internationalmarket for Web developers,says Karim.

The tool is available in 156countries and is downloaded

at least 40 times every day.

Product: IFFCO Kisan SancharPromoter: IFFCO and Airtel, IFFCOKisan Sanchar Ltd. (IKSL)Category: e-agriculture andlivelihood

IFFCO Kisan Sanchar, a joint venture between Indian Farm-ers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd(IFFCO) and Bharti Airtel Ltd,provides SIM cards with pre-loaded content to farmersthrough cooperative societies.

Every day, five free voicemessages are delivered to sub-scribers through the SIM card.These messages are of a min-ute each, and carry useful andtimely information on issuessuch as soil management, cropmanagement, animal husband-ry, horticulture, plant protec-tion, market rates and so on.

To make the content rele- vant to local farm practices,the company has divided the18 state s i t serve s into 60

zones. The content is createdby the India MeteorologicalDepartment and state agricul-ture universities and is curatedby subject matter experts,says Gaurav Kumar Rai, execu-tive (content).

The subscriber also has theoption to call back and listento the message again. For fur-ther assistance, they can call afree round-the-clock helplineset up by the company.

The biggest hurdle was toconvince the farmer to usetechnology which would onlyhelp him raise his standard ofliving. But now, when they seethe positive impact and lowcost involved, they are adopt-ing it on a happy note, saysRai.

Product: Bell BajaoPromoter: Breakthrough,New Delhi

Category: e-news & mediaThe Bell Bajao, or Ring the

Bell campaign, seeks to enddomestic violence againstwomen and urge men to inter-vene on their behalf.

Started in 2008 by Break-through, an international hu-man rights organization, theinitiative has been spreadingawareness about womensrights in Karnataka and UttarPradesh.

Our campaign was basedon a research that we did onbehaviour of men, says PialiBhattacharya, assistant man-ager for the campaign. Ac-cording to that research, thereare three types of men: actiontaking, violent and bystanders.

So it is aimed at the bystanderand bring him in the actiontaking category against the vio-lent.

According to Bhattacharya,men can play a positive role,challenge peers who are abu-sive and violent and act as sup-port for victims.

The organization gives train-ing to volunteers under com-munity-based programmes. Italso encourages people toshare their real life experienc-es in dealing with domestic vi-olence.

We are integrating our off-line and online activities by us-ing various mediums like radio,TV, mobile phones, blogs, com-munity radio services and so-

cial media, Bhattacharya adds.

EMPOWERMENT TOOL

Harnessing the power ofmobiles to change livesBY MOULISHREE SRIVASTAVA

& SURABHI AGARWAL

NEW DELHI

In a society where girls oftenget married by the age of 17and have four kids by the timethey turn 21, women typicallyface violence in one form or an-other, be it physical or mental,says Preeti Soni from Kutch, Gu-jarat. Soni is the executive direc-tor of Kutch Mahila Vikas Samiti(KMVS), which has been work-ing to improve the lives of wom-en for 20 years.

Last year, the organizationstarted Hello Sakhi, a mobilehelpline for women, in conjunc-tion with the local police depart-ment. A special cell has been setup to handle calls from womenin nearly 940 villages in the westzone of Kutch. The initiative pro-vides support to women through

counselling, provides them shel-ter and, if need be, helps themfile police complaints. It alsogives training to groups of wom-en to stand up against physicaland mental harassment. Soni was in New Delhi on Friday toreceive the Manthan Award,South Asia, for digital inclusionfor development under womeninnovation for mobile awards.

We have suffered, that is whywe are here, she says when ask-ed how her organization cameup with the idea to start the hel-pline. We had been working onthis for quite some time, but itcould take shape only when wereceived positive response fromthe Kutch police.

The initiative also informs vil-

lage women about their rights,particularly property rights, anddomestic violence. It works witha paralegal teama group of twoto three village women giventraining in the judicial systemand basic rights of women. Atthe block level, the group con-ducts counselling for distressedwomen with the help of lawyers.Since the launch of the helplinein March 2010, some 670 womenhave received direct help

through calls and 300 womenhave attended counselling serv-ices through the helpline. Thegroup also has more than 200

paralegal cadres.Another winner of the award

was Barefoot College, a 40-year-old non-governmental organiza-tion, for its programme titledEmpowerment of 25,000 poorrural women through mobilephones and Tilonia communityradio. The programme educates25,000 poor women, widows orphysically challenged rural women in Tilonia, a village in Ajmer, Rajasthan. The commu-nity radio station, which covers15 villages and reaches 100,000listeners, shares knowledge on water management techniques,healthcare, environment protec-tion, use of renewable energy,employment and self-employ-ment opportunities.

Half the listeners who contactthe community centre use theirmobiles to get in touch with thestaff for help and enquiry. Its very empowering for me andother women who are part of thisprogramme, says Norti Devi, who has worked to bring payparity for men and women. A re-search for Vodafone India Foun-dation by Vital Wave Consultingsays mobile phones representthe largest opportunity to ad-dress women, who suffer frompervasive inequality and havedistinct health, education andeconomic needs, with 225 mil-lion women with mobile phones.

The Maternal Health Serviceson Mobile, an initiative started inOctober 2009to circulatevitalin-

formation regarding reproduc-tive and child health to womenusing localized SMSes in Hindi, was the third recipient of theaward. This project is imple-mented by the DatamationFoundation Trust, a communityorganization working for health-care, livelihood and education.Microsoft Research is one of itspartners. There were 12 nomi-nees for the awards.

moulishree.s@livemint.com

Ringing in change: The Bell Bajao team at the India International Cen-tre in New Delhi.

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For more profiles of the award

winners, go to

www.livemint.com/manthan2011For videos of the award winners,

go to

www.livemint.com/manthanwinners.htm

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