India is home to over 60 million persons with disability. With lack of Government support, access to assistive technologies and expensive treatments, disability has remained a largely unaddressed social challenge. ICT is now being widely adopted to provide affordable, scalable solutions in the area of assistive technologies, making the world we live in more inclusive for Persons with Disabilities (PwD’s).

Solutions include but are not limited to:

•  Low cost solutions that use touch, voice and movement.
• Wearable safety devices.
• Voice to text solutions, online advocacy forums
• Technologies that create an enabling environment for Persons with Disabilities and render daily activities accessible. i.e- boarding a bus, walking and navigation, conversation, reading etc.
• E-learning solutions for children with learning disabilities have made education accessible to the masses.
• ICT based training for PwD’s

Ensuring healthy lives and promoting the well-being for all at all ages is essential to sustainable development. With over 70% of the population located in rural settings and living below the poverty line, the availability of quality healthcare remains a struggle for a majority of India’s population. Over the years, the inordinate potential of ICT has been leveraged in digitizing the delivery of healthcare
to the masses.

Solutions include but are not limited to:

•  Health & Sanitation
• ICT based innovations that bring affordable healthcare solutions to the masses
• Mobile technologies that provide vital health information to community members and health workers
• Maternity, Child Care & Old Age
• Women Health
• Hospital
• Other Well-being projects.
• Any other in line with the above

A collective conscience and economic model is resurgent across the world with respect to natural resources and climate change. India will be at the forefront to ‘Beat the Plastic Pollution’ as the host of the World Environment Day in 2018. Its global leadership in fostering high growth and capacity in indigenous renewable energy production is evident from India’s power programme target of having 175 GW of green energy sources by 2022, in accordance with COP21 Paris accords. Our entrepreneurs have undertaken reduction of emissions across channels seriously. They have built bottom-up collaborations with governing bodies/corporates for amplifying environmental efforts and confronting traditional silos. They have unlocked their best practices innovations and integrated them with the hyper-connected world to bring forth viable tech solutions.

A staggering 41% of India’s population remains unbanked, with over 60% of that residing in rural areas. Institutional research and empirical studies show the main reasons for such drastic figures are –limited access financial institution/financial opportunities, financial illiteracy, high interest and lending rates -all of which not only hinder financial inclusion but also drive the rural population to borrow from informal moneylenders and intermediaries at exorbitant rates, only exacerbating their financial difficulties. With the rise of Information Communication Technologies (ICT), new and innovative solutions have limited the barriers associated with financial inclusion. ICT’s has enabled the creation of micro lending latforms, financial literacy applications and many more.

Solutions in this category include but not limited to:

•  ICT mediums to encourage and enable people to have the skill, knowledge or information about financial instruments.
• Solutions on Financial decision making/independence
• Any in line with the above 

India is home to a multitude of social challenges. With over 70% of the population living under the poverty line, the country suffers from many battles that the struggle of poverty brings. As with every developing nation and economy India struggles with issues such as child labour, women’s
empowerment, human trafficking, governance, citizen rights and many more. NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum will identify the innovative use of ICT to solve any socially relevant challenges that may exist within the Indian context.

Solutions include but not limited to:

• Solutions that address support child protection, safety, nutrition, and overall well-being
• Solutions that enable Women’s economic and social Empowerment
• Innovations supporting better public services and governance
• Any other ICT solutions addressing social issues affecting India

The NASSCOM Social Innovation Forum views these social causes as critically important and needs addressing. It is therefore an open category for ICT led innovations that solve any large-scale social problem that is hindering inclusive development of the country, and NSIF will help to support these to scale and grow.

Please note that the winner in this category will not receive any grant, but will receive mentoring/access to workshops as deemed fit by the Jury & NSIF Management.