Anand (Gujarat), Apr 5 (PTI) German tech firm SAP on Tuesday announced a tie up with dairy major Amul to impart digital literacy skills to at least 1.2 lakh residents of Gujarat in the next one year.
SAP’s President and Managing Director for Indian subcontinent Kulmeet Bawa declined to disclose the overall commitment to what company executives called as a multi-year project in association with an arm of the non-profit Pratham.
He said the outlay is reasonably high and the programme being undertaken in seven districts of the state will eventually constitute for a substantial part of its overall social sector spends in the country.
Amul Managing Director R S Sodhi said Anand is not new to revolutions and termed this programme as being at par with White Revolution or Operation Flood, for which it has made a mark in the national consciousness.
As part of the project, one lakh school going children and over 20,000 adults, mostly women, will be imparted digital skills.
Bawa said there is an aspiration that at least a fourth of the 20,000 women will start micro-enterprises, and the project has also provisions for eventually introducing them to creditors.
More than 250 specially trained teachers will be imparting digital skills across 70 villages of Anand and in six other districts of the state.
A substantial part of the revenue for the company comes from the governments or state-owned enterprises in India, Bawa said.
Meanwhile, he declined to share the numbers about SAP’s business in the country, but affirmed its commitment to hire more through investments in areas like banking and financial services.
The company has 14,000 employees in the country, including those 1,500 who got hired during the pandemic, Bawa said adding that retaining talent is not a difficulty for the firm.
However, the company’s research and development arm has faced some heightened attrition issues lately, he said. PTI AA RUJ RUJ
