Saksham Trust (and its subsidiary Saktek Foundation) became one of the final champions of the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society Prizes (WSIS) 2021 in the cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content category. Held virtually this year, the event took place on 19 May 2021 and was presided by Mr Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
Saksham’s project was earlier among the 360 nominated projects from out of 1,270 submitted projects worldwide. The contest was developed as a mechanism to evaluate projects and activities that leverage the power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to advance sustainable development.
Coordinated by the ITU, WSIS works closely with the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to showcase successful projects from all over the world that implement the WSIS and sustainability values. This year’s WSIS Forum 2021, which represents the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community, was co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD.
Saksham was recognised for its contribution on Sugamaya Pustakalaya, India’s largest online repository of accessible books for persons with print disabilities and Saktek.in, an online store making available special products for persons with blindness, especially those which are not available in general market. Some of the tools offered through Saktek.in include talking oximeter, talking thermometer, talking BP monitor, talking weighing scale, etc.
In addition, the organisation was also acknowledged for providing digital-literacy solutions with training and content to over 350 students. Read more about its work here:
https://www.itu.int/net4/wsis/stocktaking/Prizes/2021/Champions?jts=AGT5U7&idx=11&page=15#start
Speaking on the recognition, Mr Dipendra Manocha, Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of Saksham along with Ms Rummi K Seth shared, “We are extremely honoured to be recognised as champions by WSIS. The whole team of Saksham and our partner organisations are extremely delighted and we are very humbled to receive this recognition”.
SAKSHAM 