Indian American Teen’s App Gets Praised In India
When 16-year-old Aditya Bhatia from Houston, Texas came up with his new mobile app, little did he know he would be mentioned in the Maharashtra State Assembly in India.
The 10th grader has created an app, MeriPheri, for street vendors in Mumbai, India. He co-founded the app with his cousin Aryan Bhatia from India. The app had more than 2000 downloads within two weeks of its launch.
Mumbai’s lawmakers took notice of the app, thanks to the coverage it received from India’s regional newspapers, including the Times of India. The app was mentioned by MLA Jyoti Kalani in Maharashtra State Assembly, who even recommended its creators for felicitation.
The app’s concept is simple and unique. The mobile application connects the consumers with their neighborhood pheriwalas (street vendors). This is to make things easier and convenient for both the buyers and the local hawkers. It is, perhaps, India’s first-ever mobile app to connect buyers with their nearby street vendors in real-time.
Both the boys, Aditya and Aryan, meticulously designed the app to make sure that it is simple and convenient to use even by the non-tech savvy hawkers and elderly people. Talking about MeriPheri, Aditya Bhatia in an interview said, “There are more than 10 million street vendors in India, and hundreds of millions of people purchase from them every day. If we provide a platform to connect the two, it can simplify things and generate millions of dollars’ worth of business. It benefits both the sellers and buyers immensely.” What’s more? MeriPheri is available in several regional languages to cater to the people of India.
Inspired by tech entrepreneurs Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, the young developers are now looking for angel investors or venture capital funds to expand and promote their app.
