To enable cashless transactions in rural parts of the country, Tata Trusts and Google India have announced a tie-up with mobile wallet major MobiKwik.
According to a company statement, the tie-up will expand the ‘Internet Saathi' initiative -- a joint initiative of Tata Trusts and Google India -- which is aimed at transforming the lives of over 200 million (20 crore) people with digital literacy.
The initiative focuses on training communities to go online, whilst providing them access to internet powered devices and educating them about cashless announcements.
The statement said that the pilot plan was rolled out in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday.
"As part of the Digital India initiative and Tata Trusts' overall digital strategy, our aim is to drive empowerment with a focus on digital innovation to create a revenue opportunity for the communities at a larger level with sustainable impact," Raman Kalyanakrishnan, Project Director, Tata Trusts, said.
Tata Trusts and Google India launched the Internet Saathi programme with the objective to reduce gender barrier for access to the internet and its benefits.
"Launched in July 2015, Internet Saathi programme is now live in 10 states reaching out to over 26,000 villages. Close to 12,00,000 women have benefited from the programme by getting trained on digital and internet literacy," the statement read.
The statement explained that the campaign carried out by the "Internet Saathis" enables the village communities to get acquainted with the smart devices with the potential of sourcing information from the devices and making wallet payments through the mobile wallet.
