The Manthan Award 2008 for South Asian Countries : to recognize the best e-content for development

The Manthan Award, after its four years of interventions in India, has now decided to cover South Asian Countries, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.  The Manthan Award has been strengthening the e-content movement in India by making a continuous strive towards scouting best content practices, identifying them, selecting them and felicitating them.

The unique categories namely, e-business; e-learning; e-culture; e-government; e-health; e-enterprise and livelihood; e-entertainment; e-education; e-environment; e-inclusion; e-localization; e-news; e-science; e-youth; m-content;; community broadcasting, on the one hand, has widen the horizons of the Manthan Award, on the other, enabled all to know at one platform, the best initiatives using Information Communication Technologies for empowering Communities in Rural India.

Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), based in New Delhi, the drive behind this initiative, has been working relentlessly to make the  Award strengthened from merely 8 nominations to 350 nominations last year. The Manthan Award claims to have a huge network of more than 1000 organizations and projects across 27 States/Union Territories in India.

The Manthan Awardees, with this recognition, moved ahead in up-scaling their initiatives, getting international recognition, enhanced funding and also a part of the larger partnership network.

The Manthan Award 2008 for South Asia has been launched on February 8, 2008, during the Seventh Annual Regional Meeting (ARM) of One World South Asia(OWSA) held in New Delhi during February 8-9, 2008. OWSA is the “Regional South Asia Partner” in the movement of e-content best practices in South Asia. Digital Empowerment Foundation with OWSA as its Regional South Asia Partner, is committed to entail South Asian best practices in e-Content  and strengthen the ICT for Development initiatives in South Asia.

The participants from Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the ARM  responded affirmatively and extended their support in joining the stream as Country partners for getting the nominations from their countries.

With the launch, Digital Empowerment Foundation would welcome the First Information Reports (FIRs) from now by logging on to  www.defindia.net or www.manthanaward.org, and be a part of the ever expanding e-Content community committed to show the way through new digital mediums. This initiative is in conjunction with the World Summit Award, Austria, www.wsis-award.org.

More Photographs from the Manthan Launch at OWSA ARM: