Google, which launched Internet Saathi - a program with Tata Trusts to provide education to women in rural India on the basic use and benefits of internet in July last year - has expanded to 4 more states: West Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura. Since its inception, the program continues to be available in 5 other states: Rajasthan, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Google claims that through this program, 100,000 women have learned to use the internet. The company provides internet enabled devices and training material, while the actual training is conducted by self help groups and local NGOs from the Tata Trusts network. According to Google, only 1 in 10 internet users in rural India is a woman. It plans to reach 300,000 villages in India in the next few years. We think that the Internet Saathi initiative is a much better way to bring Indians, especially rural women online, as compared to say Facebook’s Free Basics*, which used to offer only a handful of websites, and no education on how to use these. Google was initially a part of Free Basics but pulled out of the program in January this year. Google’s focus on India: In December last year, the company said that it planned to hire more engineers in India, open a new campus in Hyderabad, train 2 million Android developers and bring more people in India online through initiatives such as Project Loon. At the same time, Google opened translation to other Indic languages…
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