In recent time, Ahmedabad has developed a growing startup scene. There are several incubators around town, and the combination of high-quality academic institutions, an influx of venture capital, and the Gujarati entrepreneurial DNA give it the essential ingredients that made Silicon Valley a hotbed for innovation. It’s exciting to be a part of this new ecosystem.

Still, people ask why we aren’t based in a more established technology hub like Bangalore or Hyderabad. As a tech startup, we should be where “the action is”, where the latest and greatest technology is being developed. While it’s true that Ahmedabad isn’t at the top of the Indian IT pecking order, Awaaz.De is concerned with being close to another important community: our users.

Awaaz.De is a technology platform intended for the common Indian. And clearly the common Indian isn’t working at Wipro or Microsoft or TCS. She is more like Kapila, who runs a canteen and chai kitli behind our office. Or Narendra, the auto rickshaw driver who posts himself out front. Or the students at Gujarat University, which is down the street.

For all of its advances and amenities, Ahmedabad still has a population mostly without Internet access. Relatively few people have smart phones or use email. The regional language, Gujarati, is the common language. Facebook and What’s App are popular amongst the youth, but not beyond that. And yet Ahmedabadis are a highly social, highly engaged people with a culture placing community at the center.

It’s exactly the type of place where Awaaz.De is most relevant and useful. So for us, this is where the action is. Any startup is strongly influenced by its surrounding physical and social environment. And while staying up on new technology is an important part of what Awaaz.De does, as a company we want to be world experts in the needs of the people we are trying to serve, first and foremost.

The Wire is an American television show produced by HBO. It is widely recognized by critics as one of the best, if not *the* best, show in the history of American television. A program on crime, politics, and social strife in urban America, it combines a highly engaging plot and stories, sophisticated and intricate character development, memorable dialog, and aesthetically masterful shooting.

You would guess that such a compelling television program would have been produced in the heart of the television industry, amidst industry experts and a large talent pool. But The Wire wasn’t shot or produced in Hollywood; it was done 3,000 miles across the country in Baltimore, Maryland, where the show takes place.

What makes the show stand out is its grittiness, depth, and authenticity. It is hard to imagine that those qualities would have come out had the show been produced outside the setting it was portraying.

Awaaz.De wants to create great products that people benefit from and enjoy; the key to doing that is understanding the people we want to reach very well. Being in Ahmedabad helps us do that.

TV shows, like start-ups, seem glamorous and exciting. It’s easy to overlook the hard work that goes on behind the scenes. The CNBC film crew arrived at our office in the afternoon and quickly got to work transforming our office space and directing us on their vision.  We had so much fun pretending to be in meetings and creating  ”scenes”  as the film crew tirelessly filmed for over 3 hours!

Like a startup, the CNBC team made it all look seamless to the public. And we couldn’t be happier with the end result.

It was a great experience connecting with luminaries in the social enterprise space and getting feedback on Awaaz.De. Roshan, Bhaumik and myself learned much about where to take things next to make Awaaz.De an even more useful service (that’s another blog post ).

Being named this year’s winner is an honor, but we also take it as a responsibility. We will represent all organizations working for positive change in India as best we can. We hope we will make them proud and prove worthy of the recognition.

We’re working hard to integrate as many local languages as possible this year, so we are excited for this new addition. Stay tuned to Awaaz.De for updates in your local language!

Press play to hear how Streams sounds down south:

Awaaz.De Streams in Tamil

The Indian Government defines NREGA as a “guarantee for one hundred days of wage-employment in a financial year to a rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.” It is an entitlement program that gives every rural household an income source that they are guaranteed by the government, each year.

On Streams, local organizations in these three states were broadcasting policy information and updating individuals on their status in the program. We later learned that this activity was being facilitated by a research group from Stanford’s Liberation Technology program. The researchers wanted to empower local NGOs, community groups, trade unions, and activists in these states with information technologies to bring more awareness and transparency to government schemes like NREGA. Along with SMS, they introduced Streams to groups to remove information barriers for people availing the schemes. In the process, they also collected grievances and conducted audits of local program offices to surface any malpractice.

The researchers observed some important insights regarding the applicability and uptake of Streams:

• People and organizations were thrilled to receive voice announcements
• Technologies not relying on an Internet connection (like Streams) is a must
• Administrators want detailed call reporting
• Mixing between soliciting voice and touchtone responses from Stream users caused confusion; some training may be required

Amongst the several Streams that were established, perhaps the most interesting story was about the one created by an individual, Sanjay Sahni. Sanjay is from Muzzafarpur, Bihar, and has only a 7th grade formal education. But he is a savvy and resourceful, and gained the respect of his community as an activist. Some time ago Sanjay suspected some corrupt activities were occurring in his local NREGA program office: the officers were creating fake jobs on the names of community members and pocketing the government pay-outs. Having limited technical skills and no English, Sanjay went to a local cyber cafe and managed to get onto Google. He typed the two words he knew: “NREGA Bihar”. Many results came up that he couldn’t understand, but he managed to get onto the government NREGA site which publishes all NREGA information in a transparent way. Clicking around with trial and error, Sanjay found a map of Bihar, and clicked on his district. He then managed to display a history of all work completed in his district; he recognized many of the jobs as fake. He printed the list and brought it back to his community. The people rallied behind him and demanded accountability from the local office.

Sanjay is a Streams power-user. He comments that Streams has made his advocacy work easier, and he is more empowered than ever to serve the community and hold local officials accountable to the people. Below is an interview with Sanjay describing the impact of Streams on his work and community:

Farmers can interact with educators from KVK-Kheda to listen to information and share their feedback.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) aims to strengthen the agricultural sector by providing farmers access to innovative technologies and agricultural education through vocational training programs led by scientists and agricultural experts.  An initiative directed by the Indian council of Agricultural Research to demonstrate the application of science and technology through agricultural research and education for farmers, KVK-Kheda (Gujarat) partnered with Awaaz.De to create an information exchange platform between sector experts and farmers.

 “Streams gives us a simple medium to work collaboratively with scientists, subject matter experts, extension workers and farmers by connecting ideas and lessons through voice messaging” says Dr. P K Sharma, Director of KVK-Kheda.

Awaaz.De’s interactive voice broadcasts allow KVK-Kheda’s agriculture scientists and experts to send customized information based on the needs of farmers across the district. Voice messages on crop production, horticulture, livestock, and plant protection are distributed to farmers via Streams in local language. This allows the farmers to not only listen to the advice in a timely and convenient way, but also allows them to respond to the Stream with questions and feedback creating a hub of information exchange for thousands of farmers in the Kheda district.

For example, KVK Kheda recently used Streams to invite farmers to an agricultural fair:

Some farmers called into the Stream later to share some feedback about the fair, like this one:

• Innovation + Relevance = Impact. For social enterprises, relevance first, innovation second
• You can’t mandate innovation, only create environments that are conducive to it
• Social innovation demands local leadership
• Businesses based on values sustain longest

Awaaz.De was also fortunate to be selected as one of ten organizations to elevator pitch during the main event, with Sam, Desh, Saurabh, and Shiv all in the front row:

The other highlight of the event was connecting with many exciting social innovators and learning about their work all across India. Like last year with Logistimo and Indian Blood Donors, we look forward to working with some of the organizations we connected with this year.

Awaaz.De was honored as one of five inaugural Growth Prize winners, collecting a generous cash and in-kind prize. Jointly organized by AFI and Ashoka Changemakers, the prize recognizes social enterprises that demonstrate the best use of technology to scale their enterprises. Over one hundred applicants were considered, and winners were selected by a jury that included Hayagreeva Rao (Professor, Stanford Graduate School of Business) Desh Deshpande, Sam Pitroda, Anand Mahindra, Sushmita Ghosh (President, Ashoka), and Sanjay Kadaveru (Founder, AFI), It was a huge honor and testament to the importance of providing platforms for disconnected people in India to access and share information. We were humbled and grateful for the recognition, and hope to make the entire AFI community proud.

• Demand for agricultural advice is high, with more than half of farmers calling AO in the first seven months.
• Farmers offered the service turn less often to other farmers and input sellers for agricultural advice.
• There was an increase in the adoption of more effective pesticides and reduced expenditure on less effective and hazardous pesticides.
• Treated farmers also sow a significantly larger quantity of cumin, a lucrative but risky crop.
• Farmers appear willing to follow advice without understanding why the advice is correct: the average respondent does not demonstrate improved agricultural knowledge, though there is some evidence educated farmers learn from the service.

You can download the complete working paper here: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7150.html

Awaaz.De helped the POI organizers set up a 7,000-person Stream to send participants announcements related to the program’s application in the run-up to the deadline. Later, during the 10-day entrepreneurial workshop, POI organizers broadcasted timely announcements and directed people to important events with recorded voice messages that attendees got through phone calls.

Here is what Gayatri Astha, POI event coordinator from IIM-A’s CIIE, had to say:

One of the biggest pitfalls to organizing events is improper or ineffective communication channels. Awaaz.De solved this problem for us. During the Power of Ideas 2012, India’s biggest entrepreneurship promotion program, we were dealing with 14,000+ participants. Awaaz.De was the fastest and easiest way to get the word out regarding any important information and dates. Possibly even better than email! Using phone calls was especially beneficial for last minute changes in the agenda and venue.

In my experience, Awaaz.De is a God sent! I highly recommend it for planning events.

Streams is an end-to-end solution for managing event communications:

• Pre-event promotion, voice invitations, registration-related announcements, and RSVP collection
• During event reminders and time-and-place announcements
• Post-event feedback collection, personalized thank-you messages

If you are an event coordinator and could use Streams for your next event, get in touch with us!

Thanks to Bhaumik, Jay, and the MysticFrames team for their hard work in putting this together.

Related videos: Tutorial on getting started and group management