Winners of second edition of Agami Prize declared

The Agami Prize, a biennial initiative that seeks to identify and incubate innovations in law and justice, has announced the winners of its second edition.

This year's Agami Prize saw applications from 251 innovators and changemakers across the country.

There are three categories for the Agami Prize - Industry, Citizenship, and Idea.

Industry Prize

The Industry Prize for Agami Prize 2020 was awarded to Phoenix ‘A Smart Prison ERP’ by Amit Mishra for the empathetic use of technology in prison management to make Indian prisons more humane.

Special mention for went to TrustIn by Meghana Srinivas for bringing a platform approach to holistically address workplace misconduct.

Other finalists include SpotDraft by Shashank Bijapur, Madhav Bhagat and Rohith Salim for their international standard use of technology to ease contract review and management, and Credgenics by Mayank Khera, Rishabh Goel and Anand Agarwal, which harnesses data, technology and alternate dispute resolution to meet the rising NPA challenge.

Shamnad Basheer Citizenship Prize

The Shamnad Basheer Citizenship Prize has been awarded to Legal Education and Advocacy Unit (LEAD Cell), Aajeevika Bureau by Rajiv Khandelwal and Krishnavatar Sharma for pioneering a scalable dispute resolution mechanism to empower the migrant workforce.

Internet Freedom Foundation by Apar Gupta received special mention for creating a citizen-led, bottom-up model for digital rights advocacy in India.

Other finalists include Mobile Vaani, Gram Vaani Community Media by Dr Aaditeshwar Seth and Vijay Sai Pratap for leveraging the power of participatory media platforms to improve citizens' access to information.

Also recognised was Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access (IDIA) to legal education for making formal legal education more inclusive and accessible to the underprivileged and differently abled.

Idea Prize

The Idea Prize was shared by Zenith Society for Socio-Legal Empowerment and Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project.

Abhay Jain and Swapnil Shukla's Zenith Society has been awarded for their idea to reimagine law school legal clinics and enable grassroots empowerment. Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project by Nikita Sonavane and Ameya Bokil seeks to develop community changemakers to hold everyday policing processes accountable.

Among the finalists were Transerve Online Stack by Amarsh Chaturvedi and Ashwini Kumar Rawat, which uses geospatial technology to secure property rights for the urban poor.

Also recognised was Landryt by Girish Chenicherry Kandambeth and Srihari Katta for their idea to integrate disparate data sources for fast and transparent verification of land titles and Article 14 by Samar Harlarnkar for its idea of data-driven research journalism to tell important stories on law and justice.

Agami Founder Sachin Malhan said in a press release,

"We would like to congratulate and applaud all the participants and winners of Agami Prize 2020 for their innovative ideas which will enable the law & justice system in India. For the winners, while the prize money is certainly valuable, it's more about the access to influencers, to mentors, and to opportunities to collaborate at a high level and make sectoral and policy changes that are just not possible individually. Each application this year was unique and has inspired us in many ways. We are confident and these innovators and changemakers will radically reshape and reform the law & justice India, making justice accessible to all."

Members of the Grand Jury for this edition included:

• Roland Vogl - Executive Director, CodeX, Stanford Law School

• Ajay Shah - Professor and Author

• Justice Prabha Sridevan - former Judge of the Madras High Court

• Sonali Ojha - Founder, Dreamcatchers Foundation

• Parag Dhol - Managing Director, Inventus India

From among the applicants, 13 finalists were selected after exhaustive interviews with the founders and members of their teams. The 13 finalists were then brought before the Grand Jury. After several rounds of analysis and interviews, the Grand Jury submitted its winners for this year's Agami Prize 2020, which were announced on December 10.

This year's Agami Prize was being awarded in partnership with NITI Aayog, Observer Research Foundation (ORF), and Dasra.

Notable Carnatic singer, author and activist TM Krishna was also present at the award ceremony to felicitate the winners.