Twenty students from Baank-e-Loom centre in Saidanpur, Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, attended the FLO Skill Development Initiative 2018-19 in Lucknow where they were awarded certificates for their newly acquired skills. Apart from this, Baank-e-Loom in association with Shine India Society & GRACE Care Inc organised a free medical camp at the centre, which also…
Smartpur was launched amid much celebration in Tain village of Haryana on May 16 in the presence of Finnish Ambassador Nina Vaskunlahi, Nokia VP & Head of India Market Sanjay Malik, Nokia Head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs Amit Marwah, DEF Founder-Director Osama Manzar and community members. Smartpur is a dream project for DEF and…
You are the leaders of social media. People need to know about you and the work you’re doing,” said Osama Manzar, Founder-Director of Digital Empowerment Foundation, addressing the Finalists and other guests at the 5th annual Social Media for Empowerment Awards (SM4E). SM4E 2018 was hosted on May 25th at Eros Hotel in New Delhi.…
The status of the BharatNet project and the government’s claims need to be taken with a large dose of salt
Malini Gupta Programme Director RBS Foundation Years ago, when micro finance witnessed a boom, I was a mere foot soldier in the larger war for equality. Our battles were many and our victories few and far between. At one frustration-fraught review meeting, one of our sagacious and pragmatic community leaders had brought us firmly to…
On April 14, 2018, DEF in collaboration with Qualcomm took its SoochnaPreneur initiative to Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh. The Barabanki leg of the initiative was launched amid much celebrations in Saidanpur village, where 25 newly inducted all-women SoochnaPreneurs had gathered in the presence of DEF Founder-Director Osama Manzar, FLO chairperson of Lucknow Chapter Jyotsana…
Soochna Seva, an initiative of DEF and the European Union, is implemented in five backward districts across five Indian states—Barmer (Rajasthan), Guna (Madhya Pradesh), West Champaran (Bihar), Tehri Garhwal (Uttarakhand) and Ranchi (Jharkhand). Initiated in 2014, the project is now in its fifth year of operations. On April 19-20, 2018, an annual review was organised…
Rakhi Kumari is an Internet Saathi from Jamui district of Bihar. As a Saathi, she goes from one house to another every day, enabling more and more women to experience technology, particularly the wonders of a smartphone. However, it’s not an easy job for her either. Firstly, she has to fight the social norms that…
Sanjit Ali Khan hails from Kotulpur district in West Bengal. For the last few months, he’s been working as a volunteer with DEF for its DigiSupport project. DigiSupport, an initiative of DEF and Axis Bank, aims at empowering financially excluded communities to digitally access and consume financial products, services and information through rural digital interventions.…
A collaboration between DEF and Nokia, Smartpur is an initiative that aims to create smart villages in rural India. In these smart villages, the focus is not merely on digital infrastructure but on the resourceful utilisation of digital tools and technology in the daily lives of people. This is achieved through activities across six key…