Two young Delhi students are amongst the 25 delegates who will join this year’s Telenor Youth Forum in Oslo (#TYF15). The annual event, which coincides with the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony week, has the theme of #KnowledgeForAll this year.
The chosen delegates, 14 women and 11 men aged 18-28, are born into a digital age that encourages and enables untraditional and innovative solutions to societal challenges. An international selection panel consisting of representatives from civil society, academia and Telenor top management selected the final delegates from close to 2,000 applicants in 13 countries, as stated by the company in its press release.
21-year-old Kaarika Das is a graduate in economics from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi, and is currently pursuing a part time language course from St. Stephens, University of Delhi. Kaarika presented her app ‘Teleshiksha’ that provides a social platform to enable collaborative sharing of video courses. Teleshiksha will enable anyone with a mobile and Internet connection to build knowledge through access to publicly shared curriculums for free. The app has been designed to be used by not only individuals but also by educational institutions to reach a wider audience.
Abhishek Kaushal, 26-year-old IIM Ranchi graduate, was selected for his presentation on how Internet facilitates behavioural medicine through digital therapeutics. As 80% of diabetes occurs due to unhealthy lifestyle, Abhishek offered a solution to change one’s lifestyle digitally through a mobile app called ‘E-coach’. This app will create awareness on food habits and healthy living. It will also track user’s daily activity levels, sleep patterns, heart rate and weight all seamlessly getting uploaded to the mobile App through wearable health band and Bluetooth enabled weighing scale.
This is the third consecutive year of Telenor India participating in the Telenor Youth Forum, which till 2014 was known as Telenor Youth Summit.Telenor Youth Forum is a global platform where young opinion leaders from Asia and Europe meet to build bridges across borders through innovative ideas, solidarity and exchange of knowledge and thoughts.
Telenor has invited a range of high-level and inspiring speakers for the Forum programme, who all share a passion for knowledge and increasing access to learning. A keynote address will be given by Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, the world’s largest online encyclopedia.
Sharad Mehrotra, CEO, Telenor India says, “These young leaders are the custodians of a digitally empowered society. Telenor Youth Forum offers a global platform to present their ideas of inclusive growth and change. At Telenor India, we are committed to build a digital future for India and believe that mobile technology will be a catalyst for development of our society. I congratulate the participants for representing India at such a prestigious global platform.”
