Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM) received this year's ComputerWorld Honors Programme Laureate awards for two of its projects in two award categories — Economic Opportunity and Health. The awards are instituted by the International Data Group (IDG), the largest technology media, and research organisation in the world with a presence in more than 90 countries .
The awards carry a gold medal and a citation and will be presented during the 23rd Annual Laureate Medal Ceremony at Andrew W. Mellon Centre, Washington DC, on June 20.
Mobile technology
The initiative of KSITM in utilising mobile technologies innovatively to create, improve public service delivery with better transparency and accountability and thereby catalysing economic development in Kerala, fetched the award under Economic Opportunity category.
“The Innovative use of Mobile Technologies will bridge the digital divide and usher in a new era of information to rural areas thus bridging the gap between the rich and the poor, particularly the information rich and the information poor resulting in an inclusive Knowledge society as envisioned in our IT Policy 2007,” Mr Suresh Kumar, State IT Secretary, said.
Innovative programme
Dr SMS project of KSITM fetched the award under the Health Category. This innovative programme provides comprehensive information on health-related resources via short message service (SMS) to citizens in urgent need to locate the nearest health facility in the shortest possible time. This was developed with the technical support of National Informatics Kerala.
“Accessibility, Affordability and Acceptability are the key to the success of any project, and this project had ensure all, and I am double happy that we have been selected in two award categories, KSITM Director, Ms Isitha Roy, said.
The technical architect of this project and the Mission Coordinator, KSITM, Mr Sabarish K, said “Mass reach, easy learning curve for users and ability to deliver information to citizens in their local languages are the three pillars that will drive adoption of M-Governance services. While the first phase will see SMS and Voice Services, the next wave of services will get a boost with rollout of next generation networks and smart phones outselling PCs, he said.