New Delhi: In the quest for the next Google, Facebook and Twitter coming from India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday talked about several homegrown apps which were recently awarded top prizes in the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge.
In the latest of his monthly radio address 'Mann ki Baat', the Prime Minister said that the youth participated enthusiastically in the challenge. He noted that nearly two thirds of the entries were made by the youth of tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Awards have been given to around two dozen apps in different categories, he said, asking listeners to familiarise themselves with these apps and to connect with them.
The Prime Minister discussed about several of these apps, including Kutuki Kids Learning app, an interactive app for children; ku KOO ku, an app for a microblogging platform; Chingari app which is getting popular among the youth; Ask Sarkar app to get right information about any government scheme; and Step Set Go, a fitness app etc.
Noting that today's small start-ups will transform into big companies tomorrow and become the mark of India in the world, he said that one should not forget that the big companies which exist in the world today, were also, once, start-ups.
The Aatmanirbhar App Innovation Challenge selected the best apps from around 7000 entries across India. These were from different categories like gaming, entertainment, business, utilities, social media, fitness, etc.
Indian video app 'Chingari' that is a competitor to the now banned Chinese app TikTok was the winner in the social category.
The second winner in the category was YourQuote, India's largest writing app, and news app Koo was the third winner.
Some of the top winners in each category were -- CaptionPlus (Entertainment); Logically - Check Fake News and Verify Facts (News); Hitwicket Superstars - 3D Cricket Strategy Game (Games); Zoho Workplace & Cliq (Office); StepSetGo (SSG) - Step Earn Redeem (Health); Disprz (elearning); Zoho Invoice, Books & Expense (Business); and MapmyIndia Move: Maps, Navigation & Tracking (Others).
Scripting India's toy story
Noting that the global toy industry is worth over Rs 7 lakh crore but that India's share is very small in the sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday gave a clarion call to be "vocal for local toys", stressing on the need for making the country a toy hub.
The Prime Minister said that the toy industry is very diverse and some of the regions in India are being developed as toy clusters to make the nation a toy hub.
Channapatna in Karnataka's Ramanagara, Kondapalli in Andhra Pradesh's Krishna, Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu, Dhubri in Assam, and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh are among the places in India which are being developed in the toy sector.
Modi said the country will have to persevere together to promote this. Mentioning the works of C.V. Raju in Vishakhapatnam, the Prime Minister said once the ‘Eti-Koppakaa' toys of his village were very popular as these were made of wood, and secondly, there are no any angles or corners in these toys anywhere.
Today, when we are trying to make the country self-reliant, Modi said we have to move with full confidence and make the country self-reliant in every area.
