From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Jul 7: `Public Eye’ of Bengaluru Traffic Police and Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) mobile App bagged the top awards at the Global Mobile Apps Summit and Award (GMASA) in the city on Thursday.

The ‘Public Eye’ app adopted by the Bangalore Traffic Police to provide a platform for citizens to report cases of traffic violations has won the top award while another mobile app developed by KSTDC got the ‘Emerging Popular App’ Award at the two-day global event concluded in the city today. 

R Hithendra, Additional Commissioner Police (Traffic) received the award for the ‘Public Eye’ app under the ‘People’s Choice’ category while KSTDC Managing Director Kumar Pushkar received the award in the ‘Emerging Popular App’ category. 

Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary, IT-BT & Science and Technology Department, gave away the awards along with C R Venkatesh, Chairman of GMASA. 

Speaking on the occasion, Gaurav Gupta said the State Government is providing all necessary support to entrepreneurs and companies engaged in mobile app innovations. There is a conducive ecosystem for the app industry in Karnataka and the state is at the forefront in app technology.

He said the ‘Public Eye’ app developed by the Police Department with the help of Janaagraha, a non-profit organization, has become immensely popular in the city of Bengaluru. 

“More than a lakh people have downloaded the app on their mobile phones, and have registered over 75,000 complaints against traffic offenders using the simple ‘click-and-complain’ app. The department has taken action against more than 55,000 of traffic offenders reported by the citizens through the app,” the Additional Commissioner of Police said. 

KSTDC Managing Director Kumar Pushkar said his department is fast adopting modern technology such as deploying an advanced and user-friendly mobile app to help Karnataka gain the top spot in the country’s tourism map. 

“We have successfully launched several initiatives in this direction besides the new mobile app,” he said. 

GMASA Chairman C R Venkatesh heaped praise on the popular apps that won the top honours.

He said “The ‘Public Eye’ is one of the novel experiments to encourage citizens to cooperate with the police in maintaining the city traffic. The app was chosen for the top honour as it is the first such experiment in the country to enable citizens to lodge complaint against traffic offenders and it’s a major milestone in mobile technology.” 

A total of 24 apps secured GMASA awards in different categories. 

As many as 100 app developers, technologists, top executives and marketers from about 16 countries participated in different panel discussions and keynote sessions spread over the two days of the international event. More than 35 participated in an exhibition during the summit which was attended by about 1600 delegates from across the world.