New Delhi/Gurugram:
With the world advancing in terms of technology, a 17 year-old resident of Gurugram and a student of DPS RK Puram, Manan Khanna has ideated and implemented an artificial intelligence and video based mobile application “DEassy Donation Platform”.
DEassy platform enables mass Donors to seamlessly connect to recipients or Point-of-Contacts (PoCs) for easily donating food and essentials to underprivileged people while sitting at their homes. The donations can be scheduled under multiple categories including Food/Ration, Clothes, Footwear, Books/Stationery, Sports, Toys, Furniture, Phone/Computer, Birthday celebrations, etc. One of the other key features is SOS (emergency alert). If any poor person or family needs urgent help in terms of expensive medicines, blood, etc., this platform can be used by recipient PoCs to trigger SOS which will be received by all the people registered to this platform and hence can offer help immediately. DEasyy App is now available on Playstore and Appstore.
The solution introduces a Video-based Mobile App Platform that can be used by Donors anytime from anywhere to post and schedule their donations. Recipients directly or through agencies/organizations’ PoCs are notified of the scheduled donations and pick-up/drop can be arranged internally or through 3rd party pick-up agencies.
Manan Khanna, a student of DPS RK Puram, New Delhi, is working on this startup venture with his team from the last 1 and a half years and at present few pilot deployments are being done in some Gurgaon locations with reference NGO’s. Manan is deeply passionate right from his childhood days to helping underprivileged people. Strong willingness to fill the gaps in the existing donation ecosystem that Manan identified during the groundwork while he was a member of a couple of NGOs.
Also, the lack of trust in the existing system and missing flexible global connectivity platform are the critical gaps identified. His keen interest in Computer science from class IXth and his social service exposure led to the idea of developing an automated, trustworthy and transparent techno-social platform that provides seamless connectivity between mass donors and end beneficiaries through existing NGOs.
Talking about his inspiration to develop this app, Manan said, “The main inspiration is the feeling of gratification that I receive once I’m able to find the look of happiness in the eyes of the underprivileged. Another thing that drives Manan to create and maintain a platform like DEasyy is inequality. The unfair distribution of resources motivates me to fulfill an undeclared duty to help those with fewer assets.”
Computer science and coding as a whole has inspired him to practically apply the knowledge that he has to deal with the problems in his immediate surroundings. Manan further said that, “Being the first bystander to see the wastage of easily reusable stuff due to lack of convenience also inspired me. Waste for one is gold for another. I wanted to make the gold available to those who needed it.”
A team full of technical experts has pushed Manan forward to look towards the final goal in mind irrespective of the hurdles needed to be overcome. The whole process from the ideation to the deployment took a great deal of investment in terms of effort, time, and capital. The time and effort needed for proper analysis of the problem at hand through groundwork as a part of NGOs were followed by proper ideation and team formation.
Choosing a well-balanced team with a variety of skill sets was a necessity. Soon after, reaching out for mentorship from top industry and social experts was achieved. A technical team with proper mentorship worked their heart out to provide a fully functioning app that is published in both the Play and App Store. Funding and investment in terms of capital by an MNC were the essential components that allowed the project to reach the level it is at today.
Manan worked on conceptualization and brainstormed end to end idea feasibility with mentors (from Industry, school and social service organization). He did research/PoC on this and his research paper got selected and published in IEEEXplore in 2022 6th International Conference on Computing Methodologies and Communication (ICCMC). Manan presented this in the same conference as well.
“Few pilot developments are already done using DEasyy through drives (in association with some NGOs) in reference to Slum clusters of Gurgaon to help underprivileged people. This initiative is now being launched at the society and school levels. Few drives are planned, and advertising through social media is also planned to increase the coverage of this initiative so we can help more & more underprivileged people,” Manan said.
