Swachh Bharat inspired app wins global honours for Bengaluru girls
- Sanjana Vasanth, Anupama N, Swathi P Rao, Navyashree B and Mahima Mehendale are the winners.
- The girls, from New Horizon Public School, developed the app in January, 2015.
FollowInspired by PM Narendra Modi's concept of a Swachh Bharat, five girl students from Bengaluru designed an app called 'Sellixo'. The app, developed by them, won $10,000 prize money at the Technovation Challenge award in San Francisco.
The team named Pentechan, comprises of all girls, who are now in 10th standard at the New Horizon Public School.
The application was developed in January 2015 and was aimed to incentivise roadside shops to dispose their dry waste properly. The app comes with a jingle which says 'Why trash it when you can cash it'.
Following its success in the city, school authorities decided to submit it for global competitions. After going through other projects, the organisers of Technovation Challenge 2015, held in San Francisco, awarded the girl $10,000. Top business firms like Google, CA Technologies, UNESCO MIT Media Labs supported the event. 400 participants took part from all over the world.
After this announcement was made, the makers, Sanjana Vasanth, Anupama N, Swathi P Rao, Navyashree B and Mahima Mehendale were on cloud nine.
The girls started this project last January and were mentored by Goldman Sachs, which powered the girls with skills in communication, marketing and technology.
The girls, who have become a brand ambassadors of their institutions, say in unison that the project and its learning experience has made them good speakers, knocked out stage fear and helped them develop business and technology skills.
"There were 64 teams, but our girls grabbed the top slot and came as winners. More features are being added to the app now," said Sandhya Raman, Principal, New Horizon Public School.
The students also met PM Modi at his official residence in Delhi following their victory.
