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MUMBAI:
Reliance Communications, India’s largest integrated telecommunications
player with plans to extend its network coverage to 600,000 villages
by 2008, has announced the launch of a nation-wide contest for developing
rural mobile applications. This is the first instance a telecom
operator has announced such a contest especially for rural market.
Conducted
under the aegis of the Reliance Developer Programme, the contest
aims to acknowledge and encourage outstanding young talent in the
area of mobile applications development in India. The award winning
applications will be deployed on its Reliance Mobile World platform
and interactive Voice services portal. Also, for the first time
mobile applications will be developed for both GSM and CDMA technology
and Interactive Services Voice Portal. Applications can be submitted
for WAP, Java, Reliance Java, Brew, Brew Lite,, Symbian and VoxML
environments.
Speaking
on the occasion, Mr. Mahesh Prasad, President, Applications, Solutions
and Content Group, said, “RCOM has always been at the forefront
of developing applications suitable to customers across segments
and regions. As we embark on our objective of covering over 600,000
villages by March 2008, there will be a huge market for rural applications.
This initiative of ours will help us create a databank of exciting
applications relevant in the rural context. Our Reliance Developer
Programme is a massive talent hunt of its kind, the fruits of which
the country will reap in the years to come.”
This
year the focus will be on rural applications for transportation,
m-commerce, health care services, governance, education, information
and location based services that cater to the needs of rural population.
RCOM invites applications from talented developers for the contest
which is open between October 15th 2007 and February 15th, 2008.Interested
developers can register for the contest on the Reliance Developer
Programme website www.dadp.combefore 25th of Dec 2007 and can send
in their entries via e- mail to rdp.contest@relianceada.com. The
entries are invited under two broad categories – “Students”
and “General”. An expert panel of judges representing
telecom industry, academia and IT associations will be judging the
applications. The mobile applications submitted will be judged on
the basis of user interface, innovativeness, functionality and business
potential. The winners of the contest will be announced at a gala
award ceremony that will be held in March 2008 by RCOM.
The
Mobile Application Contests held in 2005 and 2006 have enticed hundreds
of developers. The last two contests received an overwhelming response.
The student community had shown a keen interest with over 60% of
the entries coming in from the student category. Mr. Kiran Karnik,
Ex- President of NASSCOM and Mr. Sam Pitroda, Chairperson, National
Knowledge Commission felicitated the winners of the Mobile Application
Contests held in 2005 and 2006 respectively at special award ceremonies
held in Mumbai and Delhi.
The
Reliance Developer Programme( RDP) launched in December 2002 aims
to provide a unique platform to the developer community in India
to innovate, ideate, showcase and participate in developing path-breaking
and marketable applications. Reliance is keen to assist anyone with
a good idea from innovative established companies to entrepreneurial
individuals from the University community to Business professionals.Through
the University Relations Programme(URP), the Reliance Developer
Programme aims to provide a platform and act as a catalyst to promote
innovation and entrepreneurship among the vast student talent pool
in India. The Reliance Developer Programme currently has a member
base of over 19,000 registered developers including 1000 small and
medium companies.
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