When the pandemic was declared in mid-March, a majority of companies across the world started adopting virtual meetings through various apps. And within months, schools and colleges also shifted to teaching online. As a result of this huge migration to the virtual world, US-based video conferencing app, Zoom, saw a huge leap in the number of users, adding 2.22 million monthly active users in 2020 alone. But the privacy and security policies of the app raised a lot of criticism and concern over the past few months.
To face these circumstances, on 12 April 2020, The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology’s Digital India had rolled out a challenge to develop a world class video-conference solution that was an Indian equivalent of Zoom.
After receiving entries, the jury shortlisted 12 companies who were given Rs 5 lakh each to develop their own prototype, and then the final three were given Rs 20 lakh each to develop their individual platforms.
On Thursday, a newly-launched video conferencing software named VConSol, was declared as the winner and took home a grand prize of Rs 1 crore, with an additional Rs 10 lakh for operations and maintenance.
The software has been developed by Joy Sebastian, 44, a resident of Pathirappally, Alappuzha, under the aegis of his company Techgenstia Software Technologies. Joy was helped by 50 of his colleagues to develop the software.
You must be logged in to post a comment.