Google CEO announces $25 mn fund, support for women entrepreneurs in India

New Delhi: Global technology giant Google, on Monday, announced multiple initiatives for women in India as a part of its event Women Will.

US-based Google’s chief executive officer (CEO) Sundar Pichai announced a $25 million impact fund, support for one million women entrepreneurs in rural India as well as a $500,000 grant along with software companies’ lobby NASSCOM.

The tech giant also announced the conclusion of its programme Internet Saathi for Women, along with Tata Trusts. “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,” said Pichai in a statement.

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”. For the same, applications are open until April 10.

Meanwhile, the NASSCOM grant would help 100,000 women workers in agriculture with digital and financial literacy training across Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

Google also said that it will be enabling women-led search features in its maps app. The features will help female entrepreneurs by enabling searches like “women-led” — “women-led restaurants,” “women-led clothing stores” etc.

The initiatives come after, in July 2020, Pichai announced that Google will invest a whopping $10 billion in India through the Google for India Digitization Fund. Through the fund, Google has invested in the likes of Reliance Jio, run by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.