Ventures leveraging mobile to create a social impact in India
India as a nations is said to have skipped the PC revolution and directly jumped onto the mobile. The mobile phone is the first screen for millions of Indians and people from all segments are regular cell phone users. India has more than 900 mobile subscriptions and this penetration gives the mobile a unique power to solve many problems that plague the country. When used intelligently, mobile solves problems at a scale and there are some notable ventures that have done this till date for India. Here is a list of such companies (do share more in the comments):
1) Dimagi's Commcare:Free and open-source software application with mobile and cloud infrastructure that captures data in an electronic repository which otherwise sits in paper notebooks. It is a job aid for community health workers and makes the entire process of collecting and interacting with data much simpler.
Read the detailed story and applications of Commcare
2) mDhil: Provides basic healthcare information to the Indian consumer via text messaging, mobile web browser, and interactive digital content. Issues regarding smoking, diabetes, etc. are widespread and mDhil provides a lot of informations regarding these that can help a patient.Read their complete story here
3) Classle: Online social learning network with an aim to offer free services to students pursuing higher education. Classle was initially only on the web but went on to include mobile services to focus on students in the rural parts of India.Read the detailed Classle story
4) Nano Ganesh: Nano Ganesh is a GSM Mobile based remote control system exclusively for the use with water pump sets in agriculture areas. The need of Nano Ganesh arose from the routine problems faced by the farmers in operating the pumps. With Nano Ganesh, a farmer can control the pumps from any distance via his mobile.Read how Nano Ganesh has gained in popularity over the years
5) m.Paani: Designs and implements mobile-based loyalty programs that help communities living at the bottom of the pyramid get the most out of their spend. Users of the m.Paani platform earn points for their mobile phone usage or expenditure on select FMCG products that can be monetized for products and services – such as safe water, education, energy and healthcare – which will improve their lives.Read more about m.Paani
