On Monday, Tech Giant Google announced multiple initiatives for women in India as a part of its event “Women Will”. CEO of Google Sundar Pichai announced a massive $25 million impact fund, to support one million women entrepreneurs in rural India as well as a grant worth $500,000 along with software companies’ lobby NASSCOM.
The tech giant also announced its programme “Internet Saathi” for Women, along with Tata Trusts. Pichai in a statement stated, “When women have equal access to opportunity, we all benefit from their perspectives, creativity and their expertise, and this is true all over the world. Yet, when it comes to accessing opportunity, deep inequalities persist. Building on the Internet Saathi program success, we’re making a new commitment to help 1 million women in rural villages in India to become entrepreneurs through business tutorials, tools, and mentorship,”
He further said the $25 million grant will provide “nonprofits and social enterprises in India and around the world that are doing important work to help women and girls reach their full potential”. The applications for the grant are open until April 10.
The NASSCOM grant would support 100,000 women in agriculture, providing them with digital and financial literacy training across Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.
Google also said that it will soon be launching a women-led search feature in its maps app. These features will help female entrepreneurs suggesting searches like “women-led” — “women-led restaurants,” “women-led clothing stores” etc.
