Monday, February 22, 2010 – Friday, February 26, 2010
NASSCOM , the premier trade body and the “Chamber of Commerce” for the IT – BPO industry in India, recently organized the India Leadership Forum 2010 in Mumbai on February 9 to 11, 2010. At the forum, the NASSCOM Foundation, the social arm of the body established to leverage information and communication technologies (ICT) to empower and transform the lives of the underserved, awarded enterprises with their NASSCOM Social Innovator Honors . This week, on Twitter “Social Enterprise of the Day,” we featured five of these organizations that are using ICT to leverage technology for social change.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Social Enterprise of the Day – Save the Baby Girl
An initiative of the district of Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Save the Baby Girl is an initiative whose mission is to save the girl child and to effectively execute and implement various government healthcare schemes. Taking notice of the rapidly declining female birth rate in the area, the government administration developed the website to link all sonography centers in order to stop sex selective abortion of females. The sonography centers are linked together on this website, making all information available to the administration on a daily basis.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Social Enterprise of the Day – Geodesic
True to their tagline “Building a global community without barriers”, Geodesic won the NASSCOM Social Innnovator Honor for GeoAmida, the world’s first integrated mobile computer. GeoAmida, “the perfect last mile solution to reach the unreached,” enables service providers to biometrically identify customers, deliver multiple services remotely and securely, and function reliably in the remotest parts of the world. The GeoAmida platform enables the government, financial institutions, NGOs, and enterprises to offer and deliver sophisticated services to their remotest customers, opening up new markets and creating fresh opportunities.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Social Enterprise of the Day – IRIS Business Services Pvt. Ltd.
IRIS Business Services Pvt. Ltd. is a strategic provider of information and research solutions to global customers through leading edge technology, people, and processes. IRIS won the NASSCOM Social Innovator Honour for creating an internet based voting mechanism through which children in the schools of Mumbai could vote for the candidate of their choice from among those standing for elections. IRIS succeeded in generating interest and debate among the students through the process that mimicked real life. The interschool voting competition with prizes for highest voter turnout and certificates for all “responsible voting citizens” generated much enthusiasm and response among the students and led to them encouraging their parents to vote. The solution was available in both English and Marathi.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Social Enterprise of the Day – ekgaon Technologies Pvt Ltd.
ekgaon Technologies Pvt. Ltd. designs and develops technologies and information systems to meet the needs of developing communities. A strong believer in the ideals of community and collaboration, the company seeks to use and develop free and open source software conforming to open standards whenever possible. They won the NASSCOM Social Innovator Honor for developing a mobile phone-based monitoring system for tracking delivery of social welfare program entitlements to rural poor called “Monitoring Entitlements for Rural Communities” (MERComs). MERComs’ service framework provides a way to efficiently aggregate monthly update of data in real-time from paper-based records of the beneficiaries in the field using mobile phones. MERComs’s Management Information System is modular, expandable, and localized (in English, Hindi, Oriya) and is used by NGOs to create a system ensuring compliance of service delivery, reducing corruption, and working towards building a system for a real-time access to services to beneficiaries with 100% transparency.
Friday, February 25, 2010
Social Enterprise of the Day – HMRI
Health Management and Research Institute (HMRI) is a nonprofit organization working towards improved access and quality of healthcare services for all. They won the Honor for their unique means of reaching at-risk rural populations – HMRI’s 24×7 health helpline – 104 Advice. This health contact center offers non-emergency medical advice, information, and counseling services on the toll free ’104′ number. Assisted by pre-formatted algorithms and disease summaries, callers are matched with appropriately qualified health workers (including medical specialty experts) who provide advice/counseling or make preliminary diagnoses and referrals for further treatment.
