AppsForAsia is a new initiative created by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Microsoft, and is supported by regional information technology (IT) associations, private sector technology partners and universities. The programme aims to harness the creative power of hundreds of software developer teams to create sustainable solutions for the economic, commercial and social benefit of governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), citizens and enterprises throughout Asia.
In this post we are pleased to present the winning AppsForAsia entries from India.
Application development is taking off rapidly in India and reflects the power of technology to drive the momentum of social and economic developments across the country. Four software developer teams from India recently showcased their app ideas — Jeevan Pani, Help-Me, TOTS and PathFinder — at the 46th Annual Meeting of the ADB, held on 2-5 May in New Delhi.
Water scarcity is an increasingly critical challenge in India. To help address the issue of potential water shortage, Winjit Technologies developed the Jeevan Pani app to help drive awareness and encourage water conservation in Maharashtra state.
The Jeevan Pani app is available in both English and the regional Marathi language to enable users to access useful information about water usage as well as relevant statistics, such as the average daily water consumption rates in their city. The app also helps users to calculate their average water consumption and compare usage rates to recommended levels specified by government authorities.
Leveraging social networking platforms, the Jeevan Pani app allows users to consistently track and report how much water they consume and earn ‘credit points’ for their efforts to conserve water — instances of water wastage can also be documented, via images saved on the Windows AzureTM cloud platform, to encourage more people in India to maximise water efficiency.
A team of software developers from Infosys created the Help-Meapp to combine the existing communication channels through which people in India can seek commonly used emergency services. Available in English and Marathi, the mobile app serves as a multi-dimensional solution by consolidating police, fire and ambulance services through three main components: the phone application, operating console and reporting application.
The user-friendly interface of the Help-Me app allows users to simply click on the ‘Police’, ‘Fire’ or ‘Ambulance’ icons, and an emergency request will be sent immediately to the respective control room with all the relevant details along with the current location of the user. During emergency situations, the user does not need to provide much information as the app has already pre-stored all the critical details.
The operator console is a web-based multi-tenant application with defined access levels for emergency types and the corresponding requests will appear in the respective dashboards. The reporting application generates reports that provide insight into data that can be used for analytical purposes.
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a prevalent health concern in India. According to the World Health Organisation, India accounts for one-fifth of global TB incident cases and nearly two million people in India are diagnosed with the disease each year. The Tablet Observed Treatment System (TOTS)app helps TB patients to follow and manage their own treatment regimens.
Built on the Windows Azure cloud platform, the TOTS app sends reminders for patients to take their medicine, manage treatment records and calendars, as well as allow patients to take photographs of themselves taking their medicine in order for health officers to remotely keep track of their treatment plans.
The TOTS app also utilises the Bing Map service to help patients locate the nearest TB treatment centres, allowing patients to find a facility quickly and more easily.
The PathFinder app helps to ease the process of travel planning. The app helps people in India identify the best transportation routes to get to their desired location — it also allows users to choose their route based on their travel priorities based on travel time, cost, number of stopovers and mode of transportation (bus or train).
In addition, the PathFinder app provides users with the expected time of travel based on real-time traffic analysis and a map detailing a user’s journey from the starting location to the destination. Through the app, the PathFinder team hopes that users will utilise public transportation more efficiently to reduce road traffic, fuel consumption and environmental impact.
Congratulations to these developer teams from India!
For more information, please visit the AppsForAsia website.