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Washington: India's Aadhar Bhalinge has won
"m2Work", a World Bank-sponsored online challenge seeking the best
ideas for spurring the job-creation potential of mobile phones.
Bhalinge convinced the high-level jury of World Bank, Nokia, UKaid,
and other private sector representatives of the development
impact, novelty, and feasibility of his "Smart Rickshaw Network"
to take home the $ 20,000 grand prize.
His tool would crowdsource maps at a very low cost in developing
nations by employing fleets of rickshaw drivers to feed live
traffic updates into a subscription service, according to a World
Bank media release.
Bhalinge and the five other finalists all received business
coaching during the finals. The other finalists' ideas touched on
environmental conservation, access to health care and education,
and social publishing.
The competition organized by Nokia and infoDev, a World Bank
innovation and technology entrepreneurship programme, drew a total
of 939 ideas, 96 percent of which came from developing and
emerging economies.
"m2Work", which stands for mobile microwork, aims to expand
microwork to the five billion mobile phones in the developing
world. Currently, millions of people supplement their income
through microwork-small digital tasks they can perform online.
"The diversity of ideas submitted demonstrates that we are
beginning to tap into the potential of combining access to
technology in the developing world with innovative ideas to help
solve critical development issues," said Stephanie von Friedeburg,
the World Bank Group's Chief Information Officer and chair of the
jury.
InfoDev, as part of the World Bank Group, will use its vast
network of Mobile Applications Labs (mLabs) and business
incubators to help the finalists develop their seed-stage ideas
into viable start-ups that can create sustainable jobs, the Bank
release said.
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