Facebook joins ex-Microsoft India chairman’s initiative for mass entrepreneurship

In a bid to help small entrepreneurs use digital platforms, Facebook has joined the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME), co-founded by Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman of Microsoft India and ex-chairman of Bank of Baroda.

The partnership is in line with Facebook’s commitment to train five million people with digital and entrepreneurial skills by 2021. GAME and Facebook will start working on a project across 10 Indian states for empowering rural entrepreneurs and identifying solutions for women entrepreneurs. They will also offer a grand prize for innovative models. 

Launched in August 2018, GAME has earlier partnered Social Alpha, which is an ecosystem architecture created by the Foundation for Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship to nurture start-up teams. Social Alpha is backed by Tata Trusts, which is a group of public charities. GAME has also partnered Tata Trusts, philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network, philanthropic trust The Rockefeller Foundation, and US-based advisory firm Dalberg.

Other co-founders of GAME are Mekin Maheshwari, former chief people officer at Flipkart and founder at Udhyam.org, and Madan Padaki, former chief executive of Head Held High Services.

Venkatesan said, “Imagine the power of a platform that can bring together communities of artisan clusters, agri-entrepreneurs or homepreneurs in the thousands to learn, collaborate and succeed -- the possibilities are boundless. That potential to transform the world for small entrepreneurs is what excites us most about our partnership with Facebook.” 

Ankhi Das, public policy director at Facebook India, South and Central Asia, said, “We believe that when you give women and youth the skills and technology to improve their lives, we can equip them to unlock economic and social value for themselves and their communities. Our partnership with GAME seeks to create these models and implementations in priority states.”