Indian youth wins UN award for online education platform

United Nations: A young man from India is  among 10 people from around the world selected for a prestigious United Nations award in recognition of their work as entrepreneurs and use of technology to change the world.

The recipients of the 10 Young Innovators Competition organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Telecom come from a wide range of countries including India, Uganda and Vietnam and have worked on diverse issues such as marine protection, reduction of food waste and immigration.

“These are bright young minds with creative technological solutions to developmental challenges both in their communities and in the wider world,” said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Toure.

The winner from India is Varun Arora who created ‘Open Curriculum’, an online platform for local educational material for standard, primary and secondary schooling.

The UN competition is open to young social entrepreneurs between the ages of 18 and 26 and seeks innovative digital solutions in the form of start-ups or initial concepts meeting global developmental challenges.

The winners would heading to the ITU Telecom World 2013 in Bangkok in November.

The judges received over 600 entries from 88 countries worldwide, and the winners were selected based on their possible social impact and potential for business success.

At ITU Telecom World the winners would take part in a programme to take their projects to the next level through one-on-one mentorship sessions with start-up mentors and business experts, hands-on workshop training, peer mentoring from the winners of the 2012 competition, and the opportunity to showcase their projects to the event’s influential audience.

Among the other winners are Keston Perry from Trinidad and Tobago, who started ‘KUMBA’, an interface connecting unemployed Caribbean migrants with technical skills based in the United Kingdom with Caribbean-based companies.

Nguyen Tran Hoang from Vietnam has been honoured for the ‘Land-Sea Digital Bridge’ – a digital radio communication system connecting fishing boats and shore stations.

PTI