Is India finally ready to unleash apps that do good?

Therersquos will and a way in the city The people Punebased software engineers Ajay Pathak Priyank Raj and Vivek Sharma may just have found a way to minimise your commuting woes They donrsquot claim to revolutionise the way public transport works but they can certainly help you access it more smoothly Their app yet unnamed plans to help users reach their destination faster by providing the best possible options of routes to reach your destination and also suggest the best possible mode of transport to reach there The App The triorsquos app is one of the eight apps shortlisted at the AppFest at TechEd in Pune held on March 26 The festival was organised by the Government of Maharashtra who tied up with Microsoft to encourage citizens to develop apps for social good Three apps will be shortlisted this month and the developers will present them at the Asian Development Bank in Gurgaonu00a0The app explains Pathak will ask the user to punch in details of their location and final destination ldquoThe apprsquos USP is not the route we provide because even Google Maps gives you thatmdashit is our algorithm which calculates the minimum time and money it will take you to reach your destination You could use either or both options choose the mode of transport you wish to take and you have your travel plan laid out for you complete with walking distances and waiting times between stops or places The trio is building the template for Pune and will soon design one for Mumbai and Bangalore The app says Raj could also help the government ascertain which routes see heavy traffic where it can introduce more services and which routes are not in use anymore and can be scrapped ldquoIf this app is used well it can help the government plan traffic better redirect it and encourage people to use public transport The challenge ldquoGetting data on transport routes is crucial for this app and that is our biggest challenge toordquo says Raj ldquoWersquoll have to update our app with new routes and eliminate defunct routes which will need a different algorithm Also privacy could be a big issue because your location details are out there so wersquod prefer the governmentrsquos involvement there If not we could store the data in an encrypted format so it cannot be accessed by a third party That however will need a large amount of financerdquou00a0 LR Vivek Sharma Ajay Pathak and Priyank Raj PicKrunal Gosavi An idea for India The man and his mission Thirtyfouryearold Abhijit Junagade is not anxious but certainly hopeful His apps Jeevan Paani and Vaccine Monitoring too are among the eight apps shortlisted at the AppFest at TechEd in Pune held on March 26 u00a0The app ldquoWe are reeling under a drought and my app Jeevan Pani has been designed to help citizens save waterrdquo says Junagade cofounder of Winjit Technologies an IT services company in Nasik Apart from clients in the media and entertainment industry Junagade also works with the United Nations With this free app he explains citizens will be able to report wastage of water by taking photographs of the instances and putting them up on a blog The app is also informationalmdasha user has access to information about the average usage of water in the city per day for instance One could then alter onersquos usage and calculate how much you save too The app runs in Marathi and also gives users credit points for having saved water which can then be shared on social networking sitesrdquo says Junagade Left Abhijit Junagadersquos apps help save water and monitor vaccination The other app Vaccine Monitoring will help out NGOs agencies and local bodies who implement vaccination and immunisation drives across the country ldquoThis app is useful for India and other developing nations too because our problems are rather similar We have generous donors for vaccine programmes across the world but collection of information on the recipients is rather urorganised even today The data reaches the concerned authority almost 12 months after the drive This app will scan the bar code on each vaccine administered which can then be integrated with the online form which has details of the child and hisher GPS locationrdquo says Junagade The app he adds will also help the local bodies record births and deaths in an area and forecast the future need of the vaccines accordingly Whatrsquos next Junagade hopes to gather important data through Vaccine Monitoring and publish it so the government and NGOs have access to crucial information ldquoAlso during drought the government supplies water tankers to affected areas but the villagers often have no ideas when the next tanker would reach them Jeevan Pani can be used to trace routes and update the local body in that village about the location of the tanker so people could plan their water usage accordinglyrdquo Whether shortlisted for the Asian Development Bank presentation or not Junagade says he will go ahead and design the app anyway The challenge Junagade says his apps will be able to do their bit of social good only if he has access to government data ldquoThis platform is quite powerful and can streamline many systems but it is up to the government to help open the doors to this revolutionrdquo Emergency Helprsquos on its way The man and his mission A year ago 33yearold Ashish Agrawalrsquos uncle suffered a cardiac arrest and it was a friend who finally rushed to his aidmdashnot an emergency service This was in spite the multiple calls Agrawal made to ambulance services ldquoHowever when my friend in the US had a minor fire at home he simply dialed 911 and help came to him within minutes Not only did the fire personnel come but also the police and the ambulance in case someone was hurtrdquo recalls Agrawal the Lead Technology Architect at Infosys Puneu00a0The disparity in the quality of emergency services spurred Agrawal to design Help Me a free Windows app which has been shortlisted at the AppFest at TechEd in Pune Ashish Agrawalrsquos app helps users access emergency services better PicKrunal Gosavi The app Help Me which operates in English and Marathi consolidates the police fire and ambulance services during an emergency says Agrawal who has largely worked with cloud technologies and admits that this is the first mobile app he has designed The app he says stores all the necessary details of the user when she downloads the appmdashname address medical history disability history location emergency contact personsrsquo details and so on ldquoThe app has four basic optionsmdashin an emergency a user can click on lsquoPolicersquo lsquoFirersquo lsquoAmbulancersquo or lsquoMedicalrsquo Once you click on either one of the options the app asks you if you could provide additional informationsuch as requesting for multiple agencies to rush to you If you cannot provide it you could simply press the lsquoDangerrsquo button and your location and request will reach the appropriate agencyrsquos control room To function well the government will have to integrate the information of the users with the control roomrdquo says Agrawal The app also tracks the request and informs the user whether help is on its wayrdquo Whatrsquos next Like other participants Agrawal too says he will go ahead and develop the app even if he doesnrsquot make it to the contestrsquos shortlist ldquoI cannot possibly do the Police and Fire bit because that needs government intervention but I could definitely design the app to provide ambulance and medical services The challenge Coordinating with multiple agencies ambulance providers for instance and consolidating them would be a challenge However I plan to get NGOs on board and do something worthwhile with it If the Maharashtra Government does support the app the challenge will then be to tie up the information from this app with the various control rooms and ensure they are adequately manned to reach out to this apprsquos users in time of emergency For a safer you The people Twentysix yearold Hyderabad resident Richa Yadav was one of the thousands of women who were shaken by the gang rape in Delhi in December 2012 She however is one of the very few to have done something significant in the aftermathu00a0Yadav who works in Business Intelligence at Microsoft got together with friends Ratnesh Desai Anuj Jain and Sivaraman Krishnan to design the Windows app Stipator which means lsquothe bodyguardrsquo in Latin It aims to provide a sense of security to women who commute late at night and often rely on public transport by tracking their location ldquoI frequently use public transport at night Like most parents my folks too stay up late to enquire about where I am throughout the commute After the recent incidents of rape and molestation my anxiety peaked and I decided to do something about itmdashI wanted my family to know where I am so they could help me out if neededrdquo says Yadav In February Stipator won the Nasscom Social Innovation Honours NSIH 2013 in the Social innovation by IndividualGroup Category Richa Yadav with Anuj Jain right u00a0Sivaraman Krishnan back left and Ratnesh Desai backright Their app Stipator allows women to let their family and friends track them on their commute and inform the appropriate emergency service if required Stipator won the Nasscom Social Innovation Honours NSIH 2013 in the Social innovation by IndividualGroup Category The app Stipator is a free app which uses Bing Maps to track the user while she is travelling and posts the details on social networking sites which in turn helps the userrsquos family keep track of them The posts are secure and visible only to those whom the user grants permission Another key feature of the app is the lsquoSingle Click SOSrsquo which enables the user to click an SOS button on the home screen The app initiates a phone call an SMS and an email to a preconfigured number and alerts them with the userrsquos current location to inform them about the emergency The app also allows the user to book a cab with one click and traces the user through the journeyu00a0ldquoThis app is mainly designed for women but is equally useful for children senior citizens and differentlyabled individualsrdquo says Yadav Whatrsquos next Yadav and her team have applied for a patent for their app too But her work she says doesnrsquot stop with the Windows app for Stipator ldquoWersquove had more than 400 downloads within Microsoft itself and are now planning to launch the app on iOS and Android too And we want to make this service available for people who donrsquot own smartphones too For them we plan to come up with a small lipsticksized device which helps track the user with a single click of a buttonrdquo The challenge The biggest challenge that keep most people away from developing social apps in India feels Yadav is marketing ldquoI am sure a lot of people out there have some great ideas Social apps are the need of the hour and we need some good avenues to market our work to help people with itrdquo Indiarsquos own Avengers The man and his mission Punebased app developer Atul Veer has a dream and it involves transforming you into an Avenger of sorts u00a0In May 30yearold Veer will launch Initiativers a smartphone app which acts as a platform for citizens looking to help the government and NGOs in their chosen lsquomissionsrsquo ldquoInitiativers is part of ParamiSoft a software company I founded in 2010 I mainly develop products for clients are in Silicon Valley and around Boston However even back then my first dream project involved doing connecting local representatives with the community and local businesses I designed a webbased product Our Wakad but it ran into lossesrdquo admits Veer The idea didnrsquot die he adds Now through Initiativers a free iOS and Android app Veer plans to bring citizens closer to the change they want to see ldquoTherersquos much that needs to be done about governance and our social problems and we can build our own team of Avengers our local superheroesrdquo smiles Veer over the telephonerdquo Atul Veerrsquos app Initiativers will connect citizens with government and NGO initiatives The app Initiativers will list a number of timebound missions for which the government or the concerned NGOs need volunteers Each mission will have a minimum of two and a maximum of 10 tasks which the app user could fulfill Users could choose to volunteer provide solutions andor report the event and the mission u00a0In May the app will kickstart with the mission of gathering enough people to appeal to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan to give activists at least two months to study Punersquos 20year development plan ldquoThe development plan was for 20072027 but the Pune Municipal Corporation delayed the plan by six years Now they expect citizens to make suggestions and raise objections within a monthmdashby April 27 We the citizens and the activists need at least twothree months to study the development plans So Initiativers has tied up with Sajag Nagarik Mancha an NGO founded by RTI activist Vivek Velankar to appeal to the CM to extend the date to June 30rdquo Whatrsquos next Veer has tied up with the PimpriChinchwad Municipal Corporation commissioner Dr Shirkar Pardeshi and is formulating a mission which gathers citizens to report unauthorised constructions He has also tied up with Sustainable Initiatives an organization which works towards urban and environmental planning architecture environmental science geography and energy ldquoI am also working with the Telerad Foundation to get community support for rural telemedicine activitiesgather volunteer doctors and NGOrsquos to run patient centers in their rural areas etc A future mission will include some work for Tara Trust which works for children and women who are street labourersrdquo The challenge According to Veer he can afford to take social apps seriously because he has a wellestablished client base in the US ldquoBut for those who want to take this up on a larger the going gets tough because it is difficult to come up with a sustainable business model I too am struggling at some level because the NGOs have great intentions but not enough money So apart from having a great idea for a social app I also have to think of fundraising options for the NGOs That isnrsquot easyrdquou00a0