MBillionth Award South Asia
The mBillionth Award South Asia is given annually since 2010 for innovations in mobile communications in South Asia. Its stated mission is "to recognise and honor excellence in mobile communications across South Asia... recognising and felicitating mobile innovations, applications and content services delivery."
Eligibility
The award is open to governments, individuals, private sector companies, academic institutions, and NGOs in any of the eight SAARC countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Entry is by self-nomination.
Selection process
Nominations for the award are pre-filtered and the final selection is carried out by a Grand Jury. In 2014 the Grand Jury consisted of 15 members and considered 126 nominations. There were 24 winners and 6 Special Mentions.
Categories
Awards are given within each of 11 "core categories":
- m-Health
- m-Travel and tourism
- m-Governance
- m-Entertainment
- m-Business and commerce / banking
- m-Inclusion
- m-Education and learning
- m-Agriculture and ecology
- m-Culture and heritage
- m-News and journalism
- m-Women and children
Partners
Partner organisations in 2014 were:
Digital Empowerment Foundation
Vodafone
Public Interest Registry
Qualcomm
Mint (newspaper)
Country partners
Bytes for All (Pakistan)
NICTAA (Afghanistan)
CAN (Nepal)
ICTA (Sri Lanka)
Dnet (Bangladesh)
Outreach partners
TheTechPanda
Mobile Social Networking Nepal
mydala
The moderator was Osama Manzar, founder and director of Digital Empowerment Foundation.
Winners in 2014
Winners of the mBillionth award in 2014 were as follows:
Category |
Project |
Country |
|---|---|---|
Health |
Mobile-enabled public-health supply chains (Logistimo) |
India |
Rural Health Management Information System using mobile/tablets |
India |
|
Travel and tourism |
RailYatri Mobile App |
India |
mGaadi |
India |
|
TaxiPixi |
India |
|
Governance |
Labor Permit via SMS |
Nepal |
NextDrop |
India |
|
Citizen’s Connect – SMC Mobile App |
India |
|
Entertainment |
ToffeeTV |
Pakistan |
Saavn Music |
India |
|
Business and commerce / banking |
SWOSTI Limited |
Bangladesh |
MobiKwik Consumer Wallet |
India |
|
Inclusion |
BhashaHelakuru |
Sri Lanka |
Accessible Places |
India |
|
Halaat-o-Meter |
Pakistan |
|
Education and learning |
Sipsala |
Sri Lanka |
Jobseekers |
India |
|
Agriculture and ecology |
Farmer Query System |
Bangladesh |
Fisher Friend Mobile Application |
India |
|
Mobile Apps for Farmers |
India |
|
Culture and heritage |
Pashto multi-purpose Dictionary |
Pakistan |
Women and children |
RUDI Sandesha Vyavhar |
India |
LUNACYCLE |
India |
|
Safetipin |
India |
No award was made in 2014 in the News and journalism category.
Publications
- Mobility: South Asia’s Best Mobile Innovations, ed. Osama Manzar, mBillionth 2013
- Connecting Masses: South Asia’s Best Telecom & Mobile Innovations, ed. Osama Manzar, mBillionth 2012
- mPowering Billions: South Asia’s Best Telecom & Mobile Innovations, ed. Osama Manzar, mBillionth 2011
- Mobile for Masses: South Asia’s Best Mobile Innovations, ed. Osama Manzar, mBillionth 2010
