CIOL : News : More funds from Microsoft for rural India

CIOL : News : More funds from Microsoft for rural India

More funds from Microsoft for rural India
Collaborates with NASSCOM Foundation and Mahila SEWA Trust to take ICT to the grass root level.

Monday, July 11, 2005
A D V E R T I S E M E N T

BANGALORE: Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited rolled out a third round of funding under its 'Unlimited Potential - Project Jyoti' program. The private-public partnership program is dedicated towards empowering women and communities through the use of Information & Communication Technologies in rural India.

According to the press release, the two grant beneficiaries include NASSCOM Foundation and Mahila SEWA Trust, which get grants of Rs 10.6 crore and Rs 2.5 crore respectively in cash and software over the 2 -year grant period.

NASSCOM Foundation, will be using cash and software grant for setting up 65 CTLCs over the 2 year grant period & providing IT skills training to 6500 young adults and women in strategic locations covering 65 districts in the states of Orissa, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka. These CTLCs will help to impart IT skills, training and capacity building to underserved individuals, and thus create opportunities, facilitate access, and promote economic as well as social equity and inclusion, stated the press release.

In terms of cash grants, Microsoft has invested a total of Rs 5.01 crore in India since program launch in August 2004.

Microsoft is also one of the key partners supporting IDRC for roll-out of the telecentre.org program which aims at building and supporting the capacities of telecentres across the globe, thus helping underserved individuals learn new skills and improve the quality of their lives.

Telecentre.org will make social investments in four areas, primarily convening telecentre operators, sharing knowledge, developing innovative services and building network capacity. Under the telecentre.org program, there is a significant opportunity to provide IT training and capacity-building for grassroots-level entrepreneurs who will run the Village Knowledge Centres in order to deliver on the Mission 2007 objectives. This will include investment in curriculum, train-the-trainer programs and other capacity building efforts defined by Mission 2007.

Elaborating on the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in development, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited said " This is extremely disconcerting since a majority of India's population resides in villages. Therefore, focusing on rural India is a priority and what we need is an effective public-private partnership model to leverage technology as an ally in the movement for creating economic, social and gender equity."

"Going forward, we seek to work with a larger NGO network and civil society groups for targeting more field interventions in training and capacity building of rural communities," added Ravi.


CIOL Bureau