NEW DELHI: To support the economic empowerment of women, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday announced a total of $25 million in grants to nonprofits and social enterprises in India and around the world.
The tech giant also announced supporting 1 million (10 lakh) women in rural villages of India to become entrepreneurs through business tutorials, tools and mentorship, as part of the Google Internet Saathi programme.
“Women are almost twice as likely to lose their jobs during the pandemic and an estimated 20 million girls are at risk of not returning to school. We have the opportunity to build a future that is more equal and more inclusive - and we must take it,” Pichai said at the virtual edition of Google for India event called Women Will on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Available in English and Hindi, the Women Will platform is designed especially for women aspiring to explore entrepreneurship.
To begin with, the platform would work with 2,000 Internet Saathis to help other women gain from this resource and start on their entrepreneurial journey.
That apart, Google has also announced a $500,000 Google.org grant to Nasscom Foundation to support 1 lakh women agriculture workers with digital and financial literacy.
Meanwhile, the virtual on Monday event also marked the completion of Google’s joint effort with Tata Trusts to empower women across rural India with digital literacy skills via the Internet Saathi programme that was launched in 2015.