BENGALURU: Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys, will pledge a seed grant of $2,00,000 to The/Nudge Foundation, a non-profit organisation focussing on sustainable poverty alleviation.
The Foundation, which made the announcement at the ongoing Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC) on Thursday, stated it has also received $50,000 from GWC (Great Wall Club), $75,000 from InMobi and $40,000 from Paytm at the fundraiser event.
“I am glad to support this initiative. We need projects like these to succeed in scale and speed,” Nilekani who is also the former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India said.
“The demographic dividend is one of India’s biggest opportunities but is also a big challenge. The/Nudge Foundation is focused on giving our underprivileged youth a decent second chance in life by investing in them in a unique learning environment,” he said.
Naveen Tewari, Founder and CEO of InMobi said, “We see tremendous opportunity in the innovative approach through which
The/Nudge Foundation plans to tackle poverty. With more than one million Indians expected to join the workforce every month for the next 15 years, it is imperative to provide a breakthrough solution now to avoid a national crisis situation in the future.”
Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm and One97, said, “We need change agents like Atul to transform the lives of the impoverished millions that will seek out lucrative opportunities, but may not have the required skills to fulfil them.”
Atul Satija, founder and CEO of The/Nudge Foundation, said the money
pledged by these visionaries will enable the Foundation to reach its goal of pulling one million people out of poverty by 2020 at a much faster pace.
The Foundation, launched in July this year, hopes to impart life skills, literacy and livelihood to the poor in an integrated fashion at residential ‘Gurukuls’.