A team of five Bengaluru girls have developed a new app that can put the problem of ‘no change’ or ‘change illa’ to better use.
Shopkeepers somehow never seem to have at hand the smaller denominations of Rs 1 or 2 that they owe you. Instead, they replace the amount with a candy or two. What if the money can be put to better use? The android app, ChangEd (Change for Education through Donation) developed by five girls from New Horizon Public School does just that. The innovative app allows shopkeepers to donate the ‘change’ that they owe you to a charitable organization via Paytm.
Once a shopkeeper registers with the app, she/he will be assigned a Paytm gateway account. Instead of returning the amount, they can donate that money to charitable organizations that have tied up with the app. This innovative approach to support a cause or causes has earned the app a spot at the finals of an international competition Technovation 2016.
The girls will compete with 4 other institutes from different countries in the middle school division at the finals of the competition which will be held in San Francisco on 13 July.
“If a customer pays Rs 100 for a product that costs Rs 98, the shopkeeper generally gives a candy of Rs 2 as balance. If all the money that goes unaccounted for in transactions like these can instead be credited to a particular account and later be raised as funds for the betterment of society, then why not?” said Aanchal Agarwal, a team member.
“NGOs often face shortage of funds to conduct programmes to educate rural kids. If shopkeepers tie up with us, we give them recognition in the form of a badge or sticker so that customers will know that their change, if not paid back to them, will at least be accounted for and the credibility of the shop will also increase,” said Nidhi Nair, another member.
