How mobiles can be used for positive social change: photos from the mBillionth South Asia Awards

In earlier posts, we brought you creative photographs of digital products from the Communicasia conference in Singapore, innovative handicrafts at the Sampoorn Santhe 2014 (arts fair) in Bangalore, music performances from the Rainforest World Music Festival in Malaysia, and a social hackathon at BeagesLoft. In this second photo showcase from the annual mBillionth South Asia Awards, we bring you face to face with the innovative teams behind award winning mobile content and apps (see last week’s photo gallery here). Make YourStory’s PhotoSparks your regular source of photographs that celebrate creativity and innovation!

Safety apps for children

MyNino is an app that facilitates monitoring of children’s activity by their parents, for reasons of safety and security. It is beneficial for parents who are often worried about their children when they are out of their reach. One app is for parents, the other for their children. Parents can track SMS and phone calls made from the children’s phones, and get location information at regular intervals. The app has been developed by Silver Touch Technologies in English and French.

Mobile apps for health self-care

Conceptualized and developed by CDAC, mSwasthya is a healthcare mobile app store for Indian citizens designed to promote self-care. It enables change in actions and attitudes that contribute to the maintenance of well-being and personal health. mSwasthya has over 15 mobile apps on health, wellness and fitness targeting the young, the elderly, women and children.

Decision making for women: empowerment through information

Zero-Sum Wireless Solutions in India has developed an app, LunaCycle, to empower women via a mobile app for fertility cycle tracking (see my profile of other award-winning mobile apps and content for women here). The app makes it easy for a woman to track her periods, calculate its average length, predict the next period with precision, and project the fertility calendar on the basis of time of the month. Women can also keep a check on their body weight and diet and achieve their fitness goals by using the app.

A tool for those who toil: crop apps for farmers

CropLense is a field enablement tool for farmers in india. They can use smartphones to capture high-resolution images of the crops that need protection, annotate the images with voice messages, and then avail expert advice from farm consultants, entomologists or soil experts. CropLense also includes an online forum where enterprises, government agencies, educational institutions, students and farmers can post queries, seek clarifications and interact with peers and experts. The app can record voice messages in local Indian languages. Overall impacts include increased productivity, better collaboration and effective decision making.

Power to the people: mobile tools for mapping land

Recognition and protection of property rights lie at the foundation of a free society. Right to Property, an initiative driven by organisations such as Delhi-based Liberty Institute, helps rural communities and tribals map their land properties and protect their rights. Tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Odisha have taken part in the initiative, using hand-held GPS devices in a participatory ‘crowdsourcing’ manner to map their community properties. This data has been used to get approvals of land ownership rights and related documents under the Forest Rights Act.

Got a good creative inspirational photograph to share? Email us at [email protected]!