New mobile app tries to reduce food wastage at homes and hotels

Three software professionals, preparing for the civil services examination, are developing a mobile app to “feed the hungry and reduce food wastage.” While the mobile app will be developed in a fortnight, people have begun engaging with volunteers through WhatsApp.

For the past three weeks, Chennai residents have started offering their ‘extra food’ to the poor through the volunteers without wasting it.

“We are on a mission to end hunger. To giveaway your extra food, just send out a message and we will pick it up,” says Mohamed Asif, a team member, who resigned from software major IBM to prepare for the Union Public Service Commission examinations. The other two are Nareshwar Sivanesan and Fahd Khaleel.

“Currently, we are getting food from households. People call us after a function to offer food. As a result, at least 1,000 homeless people get food every day. Volunteers offer help transport the food to the poor,” he says. At least 10 volunteers have joined. Over 10 per cent of the 5,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste generated in the city constitutes food waste.

The plan is to increase the number of beneficiaries to 10,000 people per day. “Food is a fundamental human right and it is staggering that in such a wealthy and powerful nation so many end up begging, while in our homes, restaurants, supermarkets, dining halls and offices, we waste so much. In order to reduce food wastage, all you have to do . is call, text, WhatsApp us on 99625 18992 — and we will pick it up,” says Mr.Asif.

A musical melange

Fans of classical music who are searching for a single app for Carnatic, Hindustani and fusion, all in a single platform, can check out this new entrant — the Saregama Classic app.

With 8,000 songs from over 400 artists and 50 radio stations, the app was launched last week in Mumbai. Works of artists including M.S. Subbulakshmi, Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ustad Amir Khan, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Zakir Hussain and Pandit Ravi Shankar are available in the app. Vikram Mehra of Saregama India says the interface has been specially designed to make it simple so that even people who are not tech savvy can use it. The app gives people a seven-day free trial after which they have to pay subscription to continue further.

(Reporting by Aloysius Xavier Lopez and Sunitha Sekar)