Indian youth wins UN award for online education platform

United Nations:A young man from India isamong 10 people from around the world selected for aprestigious United Nations award in recognition of their workas entrepreneurs and use of technology to change the world.

The recipients of the 10 Young Innovators Competitionorganized 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 technologicalsolutions to developmental challenges both in theircommunities and in the wider world,” said ITUSecretary-General Hamadoun Toure.

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

The UN competition is open to young social entrepreneursbetween the ages of 18 and 26 and seeks innovative digitalsolutions in the form of start-ups or initial concepts meetingglobal developmental challenges.

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

The judges received over 600 entries from 88 countriesworldwide, and the winners were selected based on theirpossible social impact and potential for business success.

At ITU Telecom World the winners would take part in aprogramme to take their projects to the next level throughone-on-one mentorship sessions with start-up mentors andbusiness experts, hands-on workshop training, peer mentoringfrom the winners of the 2012 competition, and the opportunityto showcase their projects to the event’s influentialaudience.

Among the other winners are Keston Perry from Trinidadand Tobago, who started ‘KUMBA’, an interface connectingunemployed Caribbean migrants with technical skills based inthe United Kingdom with Caribbean-based companies.

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

PTI