The seventh edition of the Infodevelopers ICT Award was held in Kathmandu last Friday, honouring winners in 14 different categories including the South Asia Startup ICT Award.

Organised by Living with ICT, the award honours innovation and start-ups in the field of information and communication technology annually.

While Monal Tech, Galli Maps and Mero Karobar app were declared winners in the Startup, Product and Rising Star Innovation categories, respectively, India’s Tech4Billion won the South Asia Startup ICT Award 2022, which was organised for the first time.

The winners and the top 5 in each category received credits worth millions of rupees for cloud services from Microsoft and Huawei, according to the organisers. Silver Lining will provide a cloud support package worth Rs200,000 in the digital services category.

While Ved Kafle was honoured with the Nepali Diaspora ICT Award, Mangeshlal Shrestha received the Entrepreneur Award.

Similarly, Bijay krishna Shrestha and Sheela Kanskar Karki won the Nepal Telecom Pioneer ICT Award and Ncell Woman Icon ICT Awards respectively.

While the Department of Foreign Employment was declared the winner in the Digital Governance category, Fonepay Digital was announced winner in the Digital Services category.

Similarly, the Digital Education award in Public Sector was received by Gyanodaya Madhyamik Vidyalaya while Gyanodaya Bal Batika School won the award for the private sector.

While BIC Technology’s Tigg won the public choice ICT Award, Dikhsanta Pandey, a grade 10 student, was honoured with the Jury Mention ICT Recognition for his Python Voice Assistant.

The jury consisted of 13 local and three international experts.

“Nepal Telecom will provide high speed internet service to all winners for one year,” the organisers said in a statement. “Ncell gave a cash prize of Rs300,000 to the winner of Woman Icon ICT Award.”

The programme also honoured the best seven start ups each from the seven provinces–Cura Health from Province 1, Ezze Eats from Madhesh, Knowledge Exchange from Bagmati, Swastik Nutri Food from Gandaki, Farid Dotcom from Lumbini, Surkhet Soft from Karnali and Pathibhara Sensor Solution Industry from Sudurpaschim.

Shankar Das Bairagi, chief secretary of the government of Nepal who was the chief guest in the programme, said there was more to be done in the field of ICT. “Everybody should work to make technology accessible to remote areas,” he said.

“The ICT award has inspired new innovations,” said Hemraj Dhakal, managing director of IME Group. “The government should invest in infrastructure to develop the digital ecosystem.”

The seventh edition of the awards had received more than 550 online nominations.

“Various types of networking and meetings will be conducted to create an investment environment for startups, products and ideas,” said the organisers.