Smartphones have infiltrated our lives to such an extent that with each passing day our dependence on it is only increasing. With upgraded smartphones being introduced almost everyday in the market, it is not surprising how humans are relying on this technology to accomplish everyday activities with a mere touch. It is pertinent to recognise the increasing usage of Smartphones for eradicating information darkness and how it has emerged as a powerful tool of change in the South Asia. Keeping these developments in mind, Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) launched the mBillionth Awards South Asia in 2010 to highlight, recognise, and reward best practices, excellence and innovations in the development and usage of mobile phone applications.
With the theme of “Smart Phones to Smart Communities”, the award looks at mobile applications which can create transformative content and services and help engender remarkable and long term changes in the lives and livelihoods of people, especially the underserved and socio-economically disadvantaged section.
The industry-driven mBillionth Awards recognises South Asia as a key hub of the world’s mobile and telecom market in terms of penetration and innovation. Though the region suffers from a significant digital divide, there is no dearth of technical pioneers who are using the platform as a tool for catalysing change. The platform honours the media that is surpassing surpassing all other mediums of communication in the region: Television, radio, Internet, newspapers, magazines and landlines.
Smartphones are increasingly becoming the natural choice for exchange of information and extending essential and innovative digital services to the broadest section of the population. The awards, therefore, seek not only to felicitate the intitiatives bridging digital divide, empowering people and bringing about greater socio-economic equality but also those who are creating an ecosystem and network of such innovators and developers to learn from each other, collaborate and scale up.
To know more about mBillionth 2019, click here.