ICT Awards is a popular award in the Information Technology field of Nepal. This year’s Huawei ICT Awards 2020 is the 5th edition. The program concluded on December 26th at Hotel Salty Crown Plaza. This year’s event is late due to movement restrictions. But the organizers also spent 4 months for selection from more than 350 online nominations. On the finale event, the winners and competitors were awarded with prizes. The ICT Awards 2020 was broadcasted live on Himalaya Television, Hamro Patro app, Facebook, and YouTube.
The ICT awards happen each yea. It is mainly organized by Living with ICT. This platform helps to motivate and award good startups in the information technology field of Nepal. The platform awards and gives prizes to competitors and winners. Above all, these things help them to grow their startup and business. Different national and international organizations collaborate in this event. This means competitors can get support from industry-leading companies and organizations. Innovative startups that help to solve problems and provide unique solutions are valued more and supported by ICT awards.
Also Read: Buy iPhone 12 in EMI in Nepal
This year, Huawei Nepal is the title sponsor for ICT Awards 2020. There are other partners as well. Other popular collaborators are Nepal Telecom and Genesee Solutions. Nepal Government also supports this award to promote the growth of IT sector startups. Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and Nepal Telecommunications Authority are big partners. NAST is also partnering to make this event happen. NAST is an autonomous body of Nepal that helps to promote science and technology.
Huawei ICT Awards 2020 Awards, Details
In this year, there are 12 categories. This includes Jury Mention ICT Award 2020. There are more than 350 plus nominations, 30 associated organizations, and 13 jury members. It also took four months for the selection process to complete. This year on 26th December of 2020, awards were given to 12 competitors. This includes winners of 11 different categories and Jury Mention ICT Award 2020. Jury Mention is the new addition of this year. The awards have different categories. So different winners can get awards, startup funds, concessional loans, and business integration support.
There were many guests from different organizations and institutions at the event to provide awards. Those awards were given to winners by Minister for Communications and Information Technology Parbat Gurung. Secretary to the Ministry Hari Basyal and former Minister Ganesh Shah also awarded winners. Other award presenters are members of the Planning Commission, Dr. Ram Kumar Phuyal, and CEO of Huawei Nepal, Zhang Xiaojing.
According to organizers, there were three times more nominations compared to last year. The organizers and jury used technological aids for the selection procedure. Therefore this has helped to make the award selection process fair and credible. Only 12 winners got the awards from hundreds of nominations. These are the winners of respective awards.
| Startup ICT Award | Cryptogen Nepal Pvt. Ltd. |
| Product ICT Award | CPFDS |
| Rising Student ICT Award | Sanchai Chau |
| Ncell Innovation ICT Award | Paaila Emergency Resuscitator |
| Digital Education Award | Budhanilkantha School |
| Digital Governance ICT Award | Inland Rand Revenue |
| Pioneer ICT Award | Mr. Nilkantha Uprety |
| Entrepreneur ICT Award | Mr. Binay Bohora |
| Nepali Diaspora ICT Award | Mr. Gaurav Raj Upadhaya |
| Women Icon ICT Award | Mrs. Timila Yami Thapa |
| Media Person ICT Award | Mr. Kiran Acharya |
| Jury Mention ICT Award | Hamro Swasthya |
Winners and Prizes
Each person and startup has won the award for being unique and doing something innovative. Every 12 winner has its own specialty. These are some of the winners and their remarkable work.
| Cryptogen Nepal Pvt. Ltd. | Equipping companies with cyber security |
| CPFDS | Anti Money Laundering Solution |
| Sanchai Chau | Developing a health consulting app |
| Paaila Emergency Resuscitator | Providing critical ventilators to hospitals |
There are a lot of support for the ICT Awards 2020 winners. Startup ICT Award, Product ICT Award, Rising Student ICT Award, and Innovation Driven Crisis Response ICT Award 2020 winners can get a concessional loan facility. The loan can be up to Rs 50,00,000 under the Startup Fund of the Government of Nepal. Rastriya Banjoya Bank (RBB) is the official banking partner of this platform. They are also providing unrestricted concessional loan facility up to Rs 10,00,000. After that, winners can use the money to expand further. Winners of Innovation Driven Crisis Response ICT Award get Rs 3,00,000 from Ncell. Similarly, Nepal Telecom is providing 1 year of high-speed FTTH service to all the winners.
Genese Solutions is also providing winners with Amazon web hosting service. The package is worth $5,000 which is big. It can help startups to boost company services by a lot. AWS is one of the best and robust service providers in the cloud computing and hosting business. eSewa is also providing free business integration and promotion to winners. This means companies can integrate eSewa’s payment solution with ease. Similarly, Eminence Ways is also providing support packages for cybersecurity to the winners. All these support and prizes can help startups to improve their business. In conclusion, the ICT award provides a lot of support to the people and companies.
Supporting IT Startup in Nepal
The Information Technology sector is the most rapidly growing sector. In addition, Nepalese experts are also pioneering in this field. There are many tech startups and companies in Nepal that provide unique solutions. However many of them don’t get support and keep a long-term vision. Basically, IT startups need support to sustain at first. In other words, they need help for exposure and finance. There are different types of ICT startups in Nepal. Some cater to local needs and earn domestically. Similarly, some cater to international customers and earn from foreign. Above all these are IT service sector work these can push Nepal to a better economic state. So, it needs support from both the public and the government.
Also Read: Huawei Mobile Price in Nepal
Everything we do today and we use is somehow connected to technology. We are surrounded by IT services and products. Therefore it is very important to take benefit of all these. Firstly we should leverage the engineers and IT experts graduating each year. Secondly, we should promote local startups more to keep brilliant minds inside the country. Thirdly the companies must be pushed to broaden the service and coverage for international customers. Nepal is a landlocked country so trade is difficult. But with easy international payment solutions and public support, technology startup companies can help improve the economy by a big margin. Similarly, programs like ICT awards can also provide exposure and industry connections.
