Technology major Google, along with ministry of information technology, has come up with an alliance to ensure security for digital payments. The alliance will bring together several stakeholders from the ecosystem including banks, fintech companies and the government. At a time when digital payments are set to increase, the alliance will run outreach and awareness initiative on safe and secure practices, financial frauds and how users can avoid them. It will also educate the merchants on safe internet practices.
Google announced another initiative to train one lakh artisans in digital technology, in partnership with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY). The aim is to enable them to tap into newer markets through improved visibility and discoverability of their products through the internet. After agriculture, handicrafts industry with over seven million artisans provides the second largest source of employment in India. Furthermore, it has a huge impact on export and foreign exchange earnings for the country.
The training will be delivered by National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT). Google will equip the trainers with training modules and content. They will, in turn, do the outreach by leveraging the 10,000 NIELIT centres across the country. Additionally, Google India will also provide mobile training labs to reach artisan clusters across India.
Last year, the company had announced a skilling programme to train two million developers. It is now extending the program to NIELIT, who will in turn train over 100,000 developers and students through its network of centres.
Some of the other initiatives that Google and MEITY are working on include proliferating the web; enhancing government’s online presence especially on mobile platforms to enable citizen engagement and training and capacity-building programs on digital tools.
