The 'NYC Way' App allows New Yorkers and visitors to the city to check out tons of handy information including live traffic updates, restaurant inspection results, WiFi locations, and even the local crime scene.
Along with the 'Public Choice Grand Prize', the travel application also got the 'Investors Choice Award', decided by leading investors from the East Coast on the basis of its marketability.
The five winners who created the application are: Puneet Mehta, 31, from Chandigarh; Archana Patchirajan, 27, from Chennai; Sonpreet Bhatia, 31, from New Delhi; Arun Arunachalam, 34, from Chennai and Vivek Mehta, 30, from Chandigarh.
The five also co-founded the company called One Derr Inc that creates social media platforms and mobile technology platforms. They all are currently working for financial firms in technology, based in the city.
"We are growing and getting publicity... that is what we've achieved," said Sonpreet Bhatia.
"Already there are thousands of people contacting us. Once people get the application on their phone, they're going to keep it... It's a keeper," chimed in Patchirajan.
Presently available on the I Phone, the application is soon coming to Android and Blackberry.
"We literally have the phone ringing every 10 minutes about people asking how to monetise this," said Puneet.
The phone is currently being used by 75,000 people and is listed by the Apple Store as one of the top 20 travel applications. Its creators have made it available for free to the residents of New York.
"Our goal is to bring New Yorkers together and also take it to other cities," says Patchirajan.
The team has already taken their application to other cities like Washington DC, San Francisco and London.
"We also want to do something similar for major Indian cities as well - with value added features like in app purchases from local retailers, real time citizen reporting," said Puneet.
All three inventors are volunteers of the Art of Living Foundation, and plan to donate their prize money "to help create violence free, stress free society in NYC and across the world."