Pune: A 21-year-old IT student, who developed an emergency mobile app that helped connect with thousands of people marooned during the 2015 Chennai floods, was found hanging in his house in Applewood Society in Khodenagar area of Nashik district on Wednesday afternoon.
Police said, Kaushal Bag, a second-year Computer Science student of K.K. Wagh Arts, Commerce, Science and Computer Science College, was alone at the time of the incident. The motive remains unknown. Bag’s father, Yogesh, who has a travel agency, and mother, Deepa, an LIC employee, were at work.
The body was found by his younger brother who returned home in the afternoon. Bag was rushed to the hospital where he was declared dead.
Bag made news with his mobile app Helping Hands, an offline cellular system application for emergency services. The app helped people make emergency calls in the absence of network connectivity and contributed in rescuing nearly 20,000 people stranded during the Chennai floods.
Many people used the app to send SMSes, which Bag and his colleagues routed to their server to identify the location of the stranded people. NGOs working on ground were immediately informed and rescue teams were sent. The app was a result of Bag’s desire to help people without internet connection in their mobile phones reach out to friends in an emergency.
A big hit
The app, in its initial stage, was also used during the 2015 Nashik Kumbh Mela to send automated SMSes to emergency numbers already saved on phones. The app was circulated through a free download link, but was not available on Google Play Store. In January 2016, Bag launched as a women’s safety app, which he developed with three colleagues. The app received an overwhelming response with more than 24,000 downloads across the country. Bag’s innovations also drew praise from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook. The tech giant had also offered Bag a job as a Product Manager.
Last year, Bag applied for a patent for his innovation and in a tweet to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 20, 2016 he expressed his desire to ‘to donate my application to all the sectors of India’.
Last month, Bag used Facebook Live to draw attention to a half-marathon organised by the Nashik Police. District Police Commissioner Dr. Ravindra Singhal felicitated Bag after the run.
