Paytm will launch a social-impact initiative Paytm.org to support its ‘Build for India’ programme that promotes entrepreneurship, and other areas such as education, women empowerment, agriculture and environment.
Saurabh Jain, Vice-President, Paytm, said Build for India was launched in January 2018 to promote innovation at the grassroots level.
“We know a lot of things that we can share with start-ups and we are doing this through a range of programmes such as mentoring, workshops and hackathons for students, professionals and entrepreneurs,” he said.
In a sense, Jain said, Paytm.org could be considered an extension of Build for India. Explaining the reason for the launching it now, Jain said, “For any initiative to be successful, you need scale. We have reached that and can give back.”
Focussing on education
Jain said the company is looking at launching open educational resources for school children that focus on ‘maker-based education’ rather than book-based, which is the norm now. “Children will have to make something and learn instead of just memorising books. It promotes creativity and let them think out of the box at a young age,” he said.
“These are in initial discussions and we are still working on how we can reach masses,” he added.
In case of environment and agriculture, the company is working on ways to support inititives for clean air, sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
The company already runs Paytm AshaKiran to educate women about financial services and create new employment opportunities across small towns and cities.
This is done in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Disha Project.