Grand finale of Info developers ICT Award 2022 to be held on Friday; Startups from SAARC countries to participate as well

The grand finale of the 'ICT Award 2022', which is known as the most prestigious award in the field of information and communication technology, will be held at The Soaltee Kathmandu on Friday 8th of Poush. The grand finale of ICT Awards, which will be organized as a special celebration of the Information and Communication Technology sector, will have the participation of eminent personalities from home and abroad.

Fourteen different categories will be awarded in the 7th edition of Infodevelopers ICT Awards. Likewise, the best startups from all seven provinces will be honoured. This year, startups from various South Asian countries have come to Nepal to participate in the South Asia Startup Awards. This year, more than 550 online applications were received for the award and the selection process was conducted over 5 months.

This year Startup ICT Award, Product ICT Award, Rising Star Innovation ICT Award, Entrepreneur ICT Award, Nepali Diaspora ICT Award, Nepal Telecom Pioneer ICT Award and Ncell Woman Icon ICT Award, Digital Education ICT Award (Public Sector), Digital Education ICT Award (Private Sector), Digital Services ICT Award, Digital Governance ICT Award, Public Choice ICT Award and Jury Mention ICT Award are being presented.

Razan Lamsal, coordinator of the organizing committee, said that after more than 5 months of tireless work and effort, preparations for the ICT Awards have been completed. "We are trying to make the award to be the best from every angle," Lamsal said.

The grand finale will be telecasted live on Kantipur Television, Kantipur Cineplex, Kantipur TV's app and website and also the Facebook page of ICT Awards. More than 25 jury meetings have been held for the award and there is also a group of 15 special advisors for the award.

To make the award more credible, public voting was also conducted in startup, product and rising star categories. According to the organizers, the best in these categories will be selected through public voting and jury decisions. Similarly, the jury had also gone for field visit to know more about the finalists. Startup and idea fest, mentoring and bootcamp sessions, story sharing sessions, field visits, presentations and speed dating have been conducted as pre-event campaign of the ICT Award.

More than 30 organizations have collaborated for the award program. InfoDevelopers is the main sponsor of the event. The event is going to be conducted in association with Nepal Telecom and Genese Solutions. This event is going to be held in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, National Information Technology Center, Nepal Telecommunication Authority, NAST, Federation of Nepal Industry and Commerce and others.

The world-famous companies like Huawei and SCT are partners for the event which is powered by Smart QR. Similarly, Ncell is the category partner, Daraz is the e-commerce partner, IME Pay is the payment partner, NIC Asia Bank as the banking partner, Microsoft is the ecosystem partner, Dishhome Fibernet is present as the internet partner, Presidential College is the knowledge partner, and IME General Insurance is the insurance partner.

Similarly, Nepal Clearing House is the finnovation partner, Broadway Infosys is the IT training partner, Veda is the Edtech partner, Fuse Machines is the AI tech partner, Silver Lining is the data center and cloud partner and Yarsa Labs is the gaming partner. The grand event has Daraz as the mobility partner, Eminence Ways is the security partner, Kantipur as the broadcasting partner. For the event; the app Partner is Hamro Patro, technology partner is Technorio and investment partner is Bizbell.

The partner organizations are Nepal Bank Limited, King's College, Durshikshya, Barcode Nepal, Sparrow SMS, Nepal Entrepreneurs Hub, Broadband and ICT Foundation Nepal.