Google and Farhaan Akhtar have unveiled a ReachForTheSky/MARD joint initiative with the aim of getting more women across India online. Or to put it more precisely, the tech giant has partnered with the Bollywood actor and director to help encourage Internet literacy among the female population.
Google wants more people to login online for noble reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with data mining, earning more advertisement revenue by increasing its user base and reading people’s mails to target ads better. It’s like folks really can’t appreciate the commendable work it’s doing in collaboration with the Indian government, Helping Women Get Online (HWGO) and now, Farhaan Akhtar, without getting all suspicious.
A new Google India social campaign called #ReachForTheSky has been announced in association with the MARD initiative for this very purpose. It is the information age we’re living in after all and it does not bode well for a huge part of the population to have restricted or no access to the web. Google India’s marketing head Sandeep Menon, says that the company is aiming to bring 50 million women in the nation online.
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Even though India has the third largest number of Internet users as compared to any other country in the world, the ratio is very skewed in terms of gender. The Indian Express refers to a PTI report which notes that the first phase of the aforementioned social campaign has enjoyed success. Within a year, the number of men and women coming online has grown by 31 percent and 35 percent, respectively.
Since Google India has convinced Farhaan Akhtar to lend his face to the campaign, it’s likely to get more attention than it usually would have.