Published on: 11/23/2015IST
This Social Networking App Designed By IITians Is Helping Neighbours Connect And Stay Safe
How about getting to know real-time sitting in your office, that your elderly mother is safely back inside after answering a doorbell to collect a courier? What if you need a doctor in the middle of the night in your neighbourhood for an emergency? And how about looking for a ladder to paint your house when an unfamiliar neighbour down the road calls you up and offers one? Or for that matter, getting to know that your neighbour a floor above can be you exercise buddy for Sunday.
This is now a possibility in NCR, thanks to NearGroup — India's first social networking application for neighbourhood. The app, which was developed and launched by an IITian 20 days ago, already has 20,000 registered users.
And at present, it has connected 500 localities in Delhi, 300 in Gurgaon, 270 in Ghaziabad and 250 in Noida. This free mobile app available on Android and iOS works strictly within a neighbourhood and only genuine residents of a particular area can register via Facebook.
It allows only verified users to be part of a group of a locality. And thanks to the app, a group of like-minded people in east Delhi have got together to teach needy children.
Prashant Pitti, its founder and an alumnus of IIT, Madras, said the idea is that, "Like-minded people can do a lot if they get together. We hardly come across such people despite living in the same locality. How do we find someone with similar taste in such a situation?" According to Pitti, who quit his job with an MNC in Chicago to launch a start-up in India, is now planning to extend the app to other cities too. He said the launch of the app is backed by a survey indicating that 72% of people in India face neighbourhood-related issues every month.
The app will also assist the users to solve women safety is users to solve women safety issues in their colony, carpool with nearby people, make local friends, seek childcare advice from parents nearby, meet similar professionals, and even borrow items like hammer or ladder among others."To be part of a neighbourhood community, users need to download the app and register themselves by selecting their location."
"User interest could be, for example, carpool, parenting, sports, yoga, running, gym, dance, painting, cooking, exam preparations, travelling, start-ups, work profile, and many others. Depending upon their selection, each user will become part of the groups. Users can communicate, discuss and meet the other members of the group," said Pitti.
"There is also a real time group chat facility and we will introduce a panic button. This can alert members of the group in case of any emergency immediately so that help can reach the individual," added Pitti.
11/23/2015 | | Permalink