Fisher friend mobile application programme, jointly developed by Qualcomm and MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, has expanded the app’s reach to Kerala.
The app will provide the fishermen with information about local weather, oceanic conditions, potential fishing zones and markets in Malayalam on smart phones to help them fish safely, productively and profitably. It has been used by more than 2,000 fishermen in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in their native languages since 2013.
Anirban Mukerji, Senior Manager, Govt Affairs, Qualcomm, said that the company is working with fishing organisations of various state governments for the promotion of the app and also started training the fishing community for using the app by appointing master trainers. Plans are afoot to cover the East Coast in the next 2-3 months with Bengali and Oriya languages.
At present the app will be available on MS Swaminathan website and it will soon be loaded into the Google Play store, which will enable natural downloads, he said.
Fisher friend programme is an outstanding example of a public-private partnership that’s using mobile technology to bridge the information deficit of a vulnerable section of the society and improve their well being, he added.
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