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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