The Hindu Business Line : How IT workers are serving beyond the call of profession

New Delhi, Feb. 24 It’s one thing to be a good professional and another to go beyond the call of duty. Typically perceived as geeks, some IT professionals and developers have actually gone out of their way to serve a purpose or a common cause.

For instance, Mr Noel Sequeira, a Web developer, has set up an online portal for blood donors in Mumbai to help bridge the divide between willing donors and those in desperate need. The portal, www.mumbaiblooddonors.org, was conceived after Mr Sequeira and his friends went through a harrowing experience when someone close was battling for life in a hospital in Mumbai.

They critically needed blood — but were amazed to find blood banks either hesitant to give blood in the absence of immediate replacement donors — or charging a mini fortune for it. It was then that Noel decided to make a difference. “We are only a month old and 250 donors have already signed up. Besides, we’ve been able to connect some of those in dire need with them,” he says.

Mr Mayur Gupta, who was studying at Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior, developed a hands-free, voice enquiry system in regional languages as part of a graduation project. The software, targeted at Indian farmers, retrieves prevailing prices of commodities and other such queries from the Internet and displays it to the user after recognising speech instructions.

Realtime ticketing

Mr Sanjeev Sarma, who runs IT company Webx, during a project with the Assam State Transport Corporation, found that the system being used for ticketing and accounting was extremely inadequate for the complex operations and heavy traffic of the corporation. “After an analysis, I suggested an online centralised ticketing system, where the entire business could be managed in realtime,” explains Mr Sarma.

From there on the corporation went in for a B2B model which besides giving consumers easy access to tickets through PCOs and Internet cafes, generated employment for 150 educated youth who started running authorised ticketing agencies.

Mr Sequeira, Mr Gupta and Mr Sarma are among those shortlisted by software major Microsoft under its “Heroes Happen Here” programme, which aims to acknowledge such initiatives by IT pros, where they have made use of their professional skills to make a difference. The programme has already received over 500 entries from India.

“It is heartening to see the level of enthusiasm within the technological community in India. What is also very refreshing is how these individuals are not only leveraging their technical skills to deliver on their job roles, but how they are contributing in areas beyond this — be it for the larger benefit of their companies, or for societal good,” Ms Pallavi Kathuria, Director-Server Business Group, Microsoft Corp India, said.