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A month-long app-development competition arranged by KP IT Board, the World Bank, Code for Pakistan, Tech Valley Abbottabad, and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority finally culminated with a final “Demo Day” arranged at a Shelton Green Hotel on the 11th of April.
A total of 42 teams from all over Pakistan submitted their applications for civic, governance, health and mobile categories. to compete for cash prizes from a cash pool of Rs.0.6 million. These were then judged by a panel of experts and out of 42, only 17 were short-listed and were invited to give a short demonstration of the app at the event
“The innovation, creativity and technical skills demonstrated by KP teams shows that the youth in this province has the potential to compete globally,” said Zafar Ali, KPITB’s Acting Managing Director. “KP is indeed emerging as a hub for the tech industry.”
Also present at the event as the judges were PTA Coordination Director General, KPITB projects director and World Bank representatives, which questioned the short-listed participants to decide which ones would go through.
“PTA appreciates the immense talent of young mobile apps entrepreneurs and their potential to represent Pakistan at global arena,” said PTA Chairman, Dr.Ismail Shah. “PTA would continue its effort to promote mobile app entrepreneurship in the country and it aims at working with all relevant stakeholders to build sustainable mobile technology eco-system in Pakistan.”
Civic Engagement
Winner: ExamBites – An entry-test preparation startup for different Pakistani universities.
Runner Up: Gotcha – An app to help two people find each other using their phones’ geo-location services and enact the shortest direction path for both to meet.
Governance
Winner: Ikhtiyar – A prototype for a website where users can give their feedback by posting their issues/complaints online and keep updated about other people’ problems and concerns in their area.
Runner Up: Rescue 1122 – A mobile app for government emergency service that lets users report any incident to Rescue 1122 team for quick response.
Health
Winner: Life Saver – An app that connects blood donors to those in need of blood depending on their location.
Runner Up: Quick Disease Outbreak Early Warning System – A system which gets & analyse info of epidemic diseases to handle outbreaks on time to reduce the number of casualties.
Mobile
Winner: CarAmaad – A carpooling service, tailored to the social values of Pakistani society that lets friends and colleagues travelling to the same destination to share their rides in a safe, comfortable and economic way.
Runner Up: Karigar – A mobile app that connects vocational tradesman such as carpenters, plumbers, etc. to connect to potential employers
All the app submissions can be found over here.
Along with the cash prizes, the winners will also be provided on-going support in case they want to utilize their ideas and transform them into functioning businesses or even work directly with the government to implement government-facing solutions.
