December 17, 2018: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) announced a competition known as Smart urban technology 2018 by organizing a press meet on 12th December 2018 at City Hall, Kathmandu. The program is a part of its youth initiative to crowdsource ideas and inspire youth to build innovative businesses. It is intended as a platform for creative and innovative Nepalese youths to use modern technologies to solve problems related to urban development by taking the geography of KMC as their pilot area. The initiative seeks youths from various background to identify problems related to urban development in Kathmandu and put forward their creative ideas to solve the identified problems. Realizing the resolution of Nepal government for ‘prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali’, this initiative attempts to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs by providing skills and trainings to the selected teams with innovative ideas through this innovative platform.
With the slogan ‘Hamro Kathmandu Hami Banauchu’, KMC is also trying to encourage youth to take ownership and be accountable for making Kathmandu a better place to live. As part of this challenge,technology is viewed in two folds Low fidelity technologies and High fidelity technologies. Meaning that the ideas that have incorporated simple technology will also be valid for competition..
Following are the objectives of the challenge
- Crowdsourcing of urban problems and challenges along with creative and innovative ideas to solve those problems.
- Create a platform for functional engagement of problem solvers and change makers willing to help the metropolitan city.
- Promote startup / entrepreneurial mindset among youths of Nepal to solve problems.
- Identify ways to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of services being provided by KMC to its citizens.
- Foster a culture of adopting smart urban technology solutions.
The application process is through the website http://kathmanduchallenge.org.
YoungInnovations being a part of the initiative has consistently supported in organizing and facilitating the event. Elucidating more about the event , Mr. Bibhusan Bista, CEO of YoungInnovations mentioned that 100 best workable ideas will be selected and the teams will be invited to take part in capacity building seminars and training. During the seminars, the teams will undergo coaching on various aspects including business development that will convey knowledge of the market, prototype development and business development from experts. Once the teams submit their refined ideas through online, six best ideas from each category — that is 24 teams in total — will be selected for the final competition . The thematic winners will get cash prizes of NPR 2,00,000 each, each runner-ups will win NPR 1,00,000 while the overall winner will bag an additional NPR 5,00,000.
On the same occasion,the chief guest Mr. Bidya Sundar Shakya, Chairman of organizing committee and Mayor of Kathmandu encouraged youth for applying their innovative ideas. He pointed that it is an opportunity where the participating students will get a chance to interact and engage themselves with various experts and different knowledge partners for polishing their idea and creating a SMART idea. The program ended with the launch of website www.kathmanduchallenge.org by Mr. Shakya.