Indian startups develop energy-saving mobile phone tech

Two Indian companies are among a handful of startups being recognized by Nokia for the development of mobile phone applications to save energy.

Pune-based Ossian Agro Automation and New Delhi-based Mobimonster 2.0 have been chosen as finalists in Forum Nokia's Calling All Innovators competition, which plans to award up to $150,000 to global startups with mobile applications that could help to better society. 

Ossian developed an application called Nano Ganesh that provides farmers with remote access to irrigation systems, often reducing the amount of time farmers have to travel to check power supplies and turn pumps on or off.

The application works with a modem to let farmers check availability of power to the irrigation systems and then to turn pumps off or on remotely using the phone and an access code.

About 5,000 farmers are using the application, priced between Rs 560 and Rs 1,700 ($11.48 and $34.83).

Mobimonster developed the GreenPhone application, a software that helps the user shut down unnecessary applications that use energy, such as the back light. The software also help optimize battery charging. Users are notified of energy-saving methods with text messages.

The application is free as a trial but costs $15 for constant monitoring.