Bengaluru student wins award at Microsoft’s 2019 AI Challenge; Indian IT companies contributed nearly $60 bn to US GDP in 2017

An engineering student from Bengaluru wins award at Microsoft’s 2019 AI for Good Idea Challenge. India’s top diplomat to the US said  Indian IT firms contributed nearly $60 bn to the US’ GDP in 2017. 

Indian app developer wins award at Microsoft’s 2019 AI for Good Idea Challenge

An artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled organ donation tracking app, OrganSecure, has won the third position at Microsoft’s maiden global edition of the AI for Good Idea Challenge.

Pratik Mohapatra, a computer science engineering student from Bengaluru, developed the app, Microsoft announced yesterday. 

OrganSecure connects donors in real-time with people waiting for an organ transplant. The app is currently in the early stages of alpha testing. 

Users can register themselves on the mobile platform as organ donors or recipients.

The recipients will have access to the nearest organ banks, prospective costs, and a list of organ donors. 

Pratik Mohapatra, a senior student-partner at Microsoft, has also developed a drug verification app called DrugSafe. 

The R.V College of Engineering student told Microsoft that he came across the idea of developing an organ donation app while watching a web series whose plot centred around organ donation. 

The AI for Good Idea Challenge offers prizes like credits to use cloud service Azure worth $10,000 and Microsoft-licenced hardware. 

Indian-origin IT companies contributed $57.2bn to US economy in 2017

India’s ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said IT companies headquartered in India contributed $57.2 billion to America’s GDP in 2017, moneycontrol.com reported. 

Shringla also pointed out that Indian IT firms have over 175,000 employees in the US.

Shringla was speaking at the 2019 State International Development Organisation (SIDO) conference in Denver, Colorado. 

The diplomat cited Mindtree’s $2 million grant to Stanford University as an example of how Indian IT companies invest in areas that transcend business concerns.