UnMuted, a voice raising platform for citizens to improve governance

Ahmedabad based trio Nirmit Parikh, Tanmay Desai and Rakesh Patel have launched an application for improving governance. Unmuted is a voice raising platform for citizens to report civic issues, governments to track, manage, and solve. The app primarily allows citizens to raise voices if he or she comes across a potholed road, unattended garbage or water logged streets. This project has emerged from the Ahmedabad Global Shapers of which Nirmit Parikh is a part. The Global Shapers Community is a World Economic Forum Initiative and is a network of hubs developed and led by young people who are exceptional in their potential, their achievements and their drive to make a contribution to their communities (see more projects here).

How does it work?

UnMuted has a rich UI and the location aware lets users report issues in real time, support fellow citizens for reported issues and to help government with real time information. Once the complain is filed the report is captured, bundled and automatically transferred to the government agency that is responsible for the infraction. On the backend, the city agency gets a web dashboard that lets them see how many reports have been submitted, a map mashup of where the issues are located, pending issues, and graphs that break down reports by type over a

given period of time.

"The system will not only make departments accountable but will also help track the exact locations of problems. Complaints not addressed within a stipulated time period are automatically tagged on again and again," says Nirmit.

 The scope

UnMuted is not for profit initiative and is launching in multiple cities of India today. The fact that only Android and iOS users will be able to report at the moment, a lot depends on smartphone penetration for the app to be of consequence in the near run. "Wide access to mobile phones will make it an ideal platform for government and citizen bypassing the need for traditional physical networks for communications and saving the time of both – citizens and public service personnel in both emerging and developed economies," believes Nirmit.

Nirmit has been able to successfully exit two companies and Rakesh has been a successful entrepreneur running Space-O, and this team has a good network to start spreading the word with.

Download the app from their website: UnMuted