Infodevelopers ICT Awards 2022 held with a grand success; distribution of awards in 14 categories

The seventh edition of the Infodevelopers ICT Award 2022 was held last Friday at The Soaltee Kathmandu. In the grand finale program organized in the presence of more than 1,000 distinguished guests, awards were distributed to the best in 14 different categories, including the South Asia Startup ICT Award.

The ICT Award program organized by Living with ICT every year is known as the largest and most prestigious award program in the field of information and communication technology. This year, South Asia Startup ICT Award 2022 was organized for the first time targeting South Asian countries. Tech 4 billion Company from Bangalore, India has received the award in this category. The best 5 startups from 5 different countries came to Nepal to participate for the award.

This year, under Infodevelopers ICT Award 2022, Nepali Diaspora ICT Award was received by Dr. Ved Kafle while Mangeshlal Shrestha won the Entrepreneur Award. Similarly, Bijay krishtha Shrestha received the Nepal Telecom Pioneer ICT Award and Ncell Woman Icon ICT Award 2022 was won by Sheela Kanskar Karki.

This year's Digital Governance ICT Award has been received by the Department of Foreign Employment, while Digital Services ICT Award 2022 has been received by Fonepay Digital. The Digital Education ICT Award (Public Sector) was received by Gyanodaya Bidhyalaya Bafal, while the Digital Education ICT Award (Private Sector) was won by Gyanodaya Balbatika Vidyalaya, Khokna.

Similarly, this year's Huawei Startup ICT Award has been received by Monal Tech. Product ICT Award was given out to Galli Maps and Rising Star Innovation ICT Award 2022 was awarded to Mero Karobar App. Likewise, this year's Public Choice ICT Award has been received by BIC Technology (Tigg).  The Jury honored Dikhsanta Pandey, a student studying in class 10, with the Jury Mention ICT Recognition 2022.

During the ICT Awards 2022, the organizers organized Startup and idea fests in all seven provinces and honored the best 7 startups of the province in the grand finale program of the award. According to which, Cura Health from Province 1, Ezze Eats from Madhesh Province, Knowledge Exchange from Bagmati Province, Swastik Nutri Food from Gandaki Province, Farid Dotcom from Lumbini Province, Surkhet Soft from Karnali Province and Pathibhara Sensor Solution Industry from Sudurpaschim Province have been honored as the best startups of the province.

In the award distribution program, Chief Secretary Shankardas Bairagi, Secretaries Dr. Baikunth Aryal, Keval Prasad Bhandari and Madhu Marasini and Chief Secretary of Bagmati Province Mukund Prasad Niraula distributed the awards to the winners. Similarly, the member of the National Planning Commission, Dr. Ram Kumar Phuyal, Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Sunita Dangol, Vice Chancellor of NAST Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha, Union Government MPs Thakur Gaire, Mahesh Bartaula, Shishir Khanal and Manish Jha were also present for the event. IME Group Managing Director Hemraj Dhakal, Deputy Governor Bam Bahadur Mishra, former Minister Ganesh Shah and other dignitaries presented the award to the winners.

The chief guest of the program, Shankardas Bairagi, Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, said that there is more to be done in the field of ICT, and said that we should work for development and advanced lifestyle by making technology accessible to remote areas.

Likewise, Dr. Aryal, Secretary of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, has invited the winner to the Singha Durbar, saying that the Ministry is always ready to provide necessary support and cooperation for the development of the ICT sector.

Hemraj Dhakal, managing director of IME Group, said that the ICT award has inspired new innovations and also stated that the government should invest in infrastructure to develop the digital ecosystem. Similarly, Sanjib Rajbhandari, Group President of Infodevelopers, suggested that Nepal should also work on intellectual property. He said that he is also preparing to expand Pupari software in a new way in collaboration with Infodevelopers.

Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Sunita Dangol, said that the local level should now move forward digitally. Kathmandu Metropolitan City also informed that it has proceeded accordingly.

Thakur Gaire, a member of the House of Representatives, said that emphasis should be placed on the development of digital infrastructure and said that he would take the initiative from the policy making level.

This year Infodevelopers ICT Award 2022 in association with Nepal Telecom and Genese received more than 550 online nominations. The jury of 13 local and 3 international experts completed the selection process by conducting more than 25 meetings. Chairman; Razan Lamsal said that during the selection process of the ICT Award in the last 6 months, the organizers have organized more than 10 pre-event campaigns.

(ICT Award Chairman; Razan Lamsal)

The grand finale was telecasted live on various television, online and digital platforms including Kantipur Television. The Grand Jury and pitching sessions of startups were telecasted in 4 different special series. More than 30 organizations participated for the award program sponsored by InfoDevelopers. Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, National Center for Information Technology, Nepal Telecommunication Authority, NAST, Federation of Nepal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, etc. are the sponsors of the event.

The world-famous companies like Huawei and SCT were the partners for the event which was powered by Smart QR. Similarly, Ncell was the category partner, Daraz was the e-commerce partner, IME Pay was the payment partner, NIC Asia Bank was the banking partner, Microsoft was the ecosystem partner, Dishhome Fibernet was present as the internet partner, Presidential College was the knowledge partner, and IME General Insurance was the insurance partner.

Similarly, Broadway Infosys was the IT training partner of the program, Veda was the Edtech partner, Fuse Machines was the AI tech partner, Silver Lining was the data center and cloud partner. Nepal Clearing House was the finnovation partner, Yarsa Labs was the gaming partner. The grand event had Daraz as the mobility partner, Eminence Ways as the security partner, Kantipur as the broadcasting partner. For the event; the app Partner was Hamro Patro, technology partner was Technorio and investment partner was Bizbell.

This year, the winners of the Startup ICT Award, Product ICT Award, Rising Star Innovation ICT Award 2022 and the top 5 have received credits worth millions of rupees for cloud services from Microsoft and Huawei. Nepal Telecom has given high speed internet service to all the winners for one year while Ncell has given a cash prize of 3 lakh rupees to the winner of Woman Icon ICT Award.

Similarly, Silver Lining has also given a cloud support package worth 2 lakh rupees in the digital services category. Other sponsors and supporting organizations have provided free services in various ways. Different types of networking and meetings will be conducted to create an investment environment for startups, products and ideas.

Here are the winners of the ICT Awards 2022:

1. Huawei Startup ICT Award: Monal Tech Pvt

2. Product ICT Award: Galli Maps

3. Rising Star City Award: Mero Karobar App

4. Public Choice ICT Award: BIC Technology (Tigg)

5. Digital Education ICT Award (Private Sector): Gyanodaya Bal Batika School, Khokna

6. Digital Education ICT Award (Public Sector): Gyanodaya Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Bafal

7. Ncell Woman Icon ICT Award: Sheela Kansakar Karki

8. Nepal Telecom Pioneer ICT Award: Bijay Krishna Shrestha

9. Entrepreneur ICT Award: Mangeshlal Shrestha

10. Nepali Diaspora ICT Award: Dr. Ved Kafle

11. Digital Services ICT Award: Fonepay Payment Services Limited

12. Digital Governance ICT Award: Department of Foreign Employment

13. South Asia Startup ICT Award: Tech4Billion (Chingari)

14. Jury Mention ICT Recognition: Dikshanta Pandey (Python Voice Assistant)

The best startups from seven provinces (from Province 1 to Sudurpaschim respectively): Cura Health, Ezze Eats, Knowledge Exchange, Swastik Nutri Food, Farid.com (M Security), Surkhet Soft and Pathibhara Sensor Solutions Udyog