NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, November 10, 2008

For Devi and others like her, Microsoft Corporation has played a role in providing access to technology and training that has allowed her to enter one of India’s fastest growing sectors: information technology.

Microsoft, in partnership with 13 local organizations, has opened more than 700 technology learning centers across the country. At a center in Hyderabad, India, Devi completed a three-month training program in computer basics. She learned how to use the Internet, draw up Excel spreadsheets and prepare PowerPoint presentations.

She now works at a software firm, making a previously unimaginable $105 a month.
In the slums of India’s major cities and the remote rural villages untouched by the country’s economic growth, there are hundreds of thousands of people like Devi: unskilled yet desperate to play a role in India’s new economy.

“I sometimes remember my past and think, ’Me? Working in an office and taking care of my two children all on my own?’” said Devi, who has surprised herself at her ability to cope with being a single mother.

Devi, who did not want to give her full name, said she would have scoffed at the idea that she ever would be in this position. But that was before her marriage to a well-respected man began to unravel due to his abuse of her. “After bearing this in shameful silence for nearly three years, I ran away with my two children,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do.”

For Devi and others like her, Microsoft Corporation has played a role in providing access to technology and training that has allowed her to enter one of India’s fastest growing sectors: information technology.

Microsoft, in partnership with 13 local organizations, has opened more than 700 technology learning centers across the country. At a center in Hyderabad, India, Devi completed a three-month training program in computer basics. She learned how to use the Internet, draw up Excel spreadsheets and prepare PowerPoint presentations.

She now works at a software firm, making a previously unimaginable $105 a month.

“[Information technology] skills, combined with life skills and job placement programs, have proven to be a great equalizer for people who lack access to high-quality learning and employment opportunities,” said Gurpreet Bhatia, who oversees 65 of the centers under the direction of the CAP Foundation. “Our approach is to protect vulnerable young people, especially girls, by providing them with market-oriented skills.”

CAP, which provides education to alleviate poverty among populations most vulnerable to human trafficking, received a $385,000 grant under the aegis of Project Jyoti. Through Jyoti, Microsoft has invested $8.5 million in an attempt to close the gap in access to education and information technology, particularly among women, an increasing problem in India.

“Inequality may rapidly be replacing poverty as the most pressing issue for many high-growth economies like ours,” Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India, told America.gov.

Microsoft began funding Project Jyoti in 2004 as part of Unlimited Potential, a program whose heady goal is to “bring social and economic opportunity to everyone on earth, particularly the next 5 billion people who are not currently receiving the benefits of technology,” according to a company spokesman.

Project Jyoti is one of several programs sponsored by Microsoft as the company steps up efforts to level the playing field. Through Project Vikas, owners of small-to-medium businesses are armed with information technology skills to tackle the challenges presented by an increasingly global economy, while Project Shiksha, begun in 2002 in conjunction with the Indian government, is integrating information technology literacy into public schools around the country.

“The key to reducing inequality is not charity or philanthropy, but innovation, entrepreneurship and creative public-private partnerships. All three in conjunction are key to provide affordable access to essential services of health care and literacy to those at the bottom of the pyramid,” Venkatesan says.

In addition to Microsoft’s work with community-based organizations, software engineers at the company’s research labs in India are working on projects that specifically address the needs of the country’s population. For example, Waranu sugarcane farmers now can log on to a cooperative network with their mobile phones to get the latest market prices and schedule harvests accordingly.

For its continuing efforts to develop the local economy, while ensuring that growth includes all levels of society, Microsoft was a finalist for the U.S. secretary of state 2008 Award for Corporate Excellence.

The company’s philanthropic efforts are also good for business. Recent research by IDC, an independent marketing research firm, found that Microsoft business partners in India make $16 for every dollar the company earns.

“Fortunately, more and more people are waking up to the idea that social commitment is also good for business,” Venkatesan says.

Source: U.S. Department of State