Government announces AatmaNirbhar Bharat App contest winners

The government on Friday announced a list of 24 top mobile apps developed by Indian entrepreneurs under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge.

The initiative was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reduce dependency on foreign apps.

The app challenge was launched on the Innovate platform of MyGov, the citizen engagement platform of the government, and received as many as 6,940 entries from tech entrepreneurs and startups across the country in nine categories -- business, eLearning, entertainment, games, health, news, office and work from home, others and social.

"Interesting and innovative Apps were received in all categories and the Jury after the presentations identified 24 Apps to be rewarded with prizes. Another 20 Apps were identified for Special Mention which has a great potential in being Apps for the future," MyGov said in a statement.

The contest was started after the government banned 59 Chinese apps, which included some widely used platforms like TikTok, Helo, UC Browser, Likee and ShareIt.

Chingari app won the contest in the social app category. It was followed by YourQuote and Koo.

CaptionPlus was declared the winner in the entertainment category, fake news checking app Logically in the news category, Hitwicket in games, Zoho Workplace and Cliq in office, stepsetgo in health, disprz in eLearning, Zoho Invoice, Books & Expense in business and MapmyIndia in the other category.

The winner in each of the categories will get Rs 20 lakh in prize money, the first runner up Rs 15 lakh and second runner up Rs 10 lakh.

"Jury also made a mention that there are many other Apps who are at various stages of development and they will also compete with the award-winning Apps in the near future. Accordingly, it was suggested to have a policy to have such challenges on a regular basis to constantly update the leader boards," the statement said.

The jury has suggested providing institutional support through mentoring and tying up with incubation centres of Atal Innovation Mission as also other government institutions to kick-start the app-building ecosystem in India, the statement said.

Social media app Mitron and Hidoc Dr were listed among the apps that have the potential to be winners of such contests in the future.

MyGov also recognised SparkLive, Iamhere, Kaagaz Scanner, Boom, docubay, paperboy, math games, aster, kite fly, sasta sundar and xploree AI keyboard among the apps that have potential to win such a contest in the future.

"For the award-winning Apps, MyGov has also launched a Poll on MyGov for citizens to vote for their favourite Apps," the statement said.