Mobile Monday Supports mBillionth Awards
Posted on: July 23, 2010 – Filed under: Global
In keeping with the growing mobile boom in Asia, the Digital Empowerment Foundation along with the IT ministries of India and Sri Lanka recently hosted the first ever mBillionth Awards in New Delhi.
In June this year, over a dozen jurors met in Colombo and spent three days going through 165 nominations from across South Asia. A one-day conference was also held that week in Sri Lanka, which featured speakers including Jari Tammisto, CEO of Mobile Monday. Participating countries in the awards included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Awards were given to mobile applications and services in 10 categories: m-governance, m-inclusion, m-news and journalism, m-education, m-entertainment, m-tourism, m-business, m-health, m-environment and m-heritage. The awards were announced at a day-long seminar and evening ceremony in New Delhi on July 23, drawing over 400 attendees. Review the full list of Winners Here.
Osama Manzar, founder of the mBillionth Awards and chairman of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, said the awards have a unique multi-stakeholder eco-system, which brings together government, private sector and civil society initiatives in mobile development. Mobile Monday was also a community partner for the inaugural awards.
“Financial inclusion via mobiles is a big trend in South Asia, and governments should do more to get involved. There needs to be much more work also in the use of mobiles for education,” observed Manzar. “Within South Asia, Sri Lanka leads in mobile teledensity. But India may have more mobile innovations due to the need to struggle with dozens of languages, hundreds of different cultures, and large economic divides,” he added.
People in South Asia are hungry for good content. Mobiles can fill in this gap, observed Peter Bruck, Chairman of World Summit Awards Mobile. The need of the hour is socionomics – economic activity with social inclusion, summed up Vishwanath Reddy, fonder of IMImobile. “No device has gripped the human mind as much as the mobile phone,” observed N. Ravi Shankar, Joint Secretary at DIT and CEO of the National Internet Exchange of India.
Dr. Madanmohan Rao