India Cash Grant Program

Bhartuya Yuva Shakti Trust: The Digital Grampreneur Program, powered by Cisco and the Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust, empowers India's youth by fueling entrepreneurial aspirations. Upon receiving counselling and initial guidance, the project offers a two-day online certification and mentorship training, equipping entrepreneurs with essential skills to start and grow their businesses. Over a four-year period the project will work directly to create or grow 800+ business of which a significant number will be women led. Each business on an average has the ability to employ about six individuals, creating a mutiplier when it comes to employment. Training is offered through digital medium while course content also covers aspects of online saftey, digital financial tools and more.

Foundation for MSME Clusters: In India, artists and artisans often operate within clusters and rely heavily on these micro enterprises for their livelihood. Despite benefiting from various government programs, there remains a significant opportunity to enhance their success in a digital economy by providing them with essential information and skills. Cisco collaborated with the Foundation for MSME Clusters to offer training programs and workshops that equipped cluster members with digital tools. This initiative aimed to help them access larger markets, optimize production processes, and increase profitability. By doing so, it sought to create a ripple effect that would strengthen local economies and encourage innovation in design and product creation.

Gyan Prakash Foundation: Via a multiyear partnership, “Navigator Disha” was created to contextualize the Learning Navigator Platform and its various apps with offline features in India to support all learners in technologically challenged environments, especially those with intermittent or poor connectivity. The tool provides navigation ability to achieve learning outcomes for learners through relevant applications with offline features. While there are several products and solutions aimed to help children learn, there are very few that help track the journey of a learner in a calibrated manner to provide the most appropriate data driven insights in situations with low connectivity. The tool currently registers over 17000 teachers.

Indian Institute of Science: Cisco collaborated with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore—one of the country's leading research institutions—to establish The Centre for Networked Intelligence. The Centre's goal is to create a comprehensive system that leverages networked intelligence to advance smart cities, IoT, and data exchanges for societal benefit.

Jagriti Seva Sansthan: The Tech Shakti Shri Program is an initiative where women are not just participants in the economy but trailblazers of a digital revolution. Anchored in the heartland of Eastern Uttar Pradesh across the districts of Deoria, Kushinagar and Gorakhpur, this transformative program is equipping rural women with the tools, skills and confidence to lead technology-first enterprises in communities where such possibilities were once unimaginable. Through a dynamic blend of digital literacy, entrepreneurship training and hands-on incubation, the program has already engaged 1,000 women, with 500 gaining core digital competencies. Among them, 40 exceptional women are receiving deep-dive incubation support - from personalized mentorship to funding pathways, market access and expert assistance in branding, legal compliance and financial planning. By building robust local ecosystems of mentors, partners and opportunity pipelines, the program is not only unlocking individual success stories but also fueling grassroots economic transformation.

Learning Links Foundation: Recognizing the need for curated and customized training programs for women aspiring to enter the workforce, especially in urban areas, Cisco partnered with Learning Links Foundation (LLF) to deliver a program aimed at empowering women through financial and digital literacy. The program works with individual women and collectives to enhance their skills and support them in establishing or growing their enterprises. A key component of the program is identifying and utilizing government schemes and community networks that promote entrepreneurship, self-reliance, and financial stability, ultimately transforming lives and fostering sustainable growth. A modest seed grant is provided to selected women to help them launch or scale their ideas. More importantly, this seed capital instills confidence in women to access formal lending instruments in the future, while promoting the discipline of repayment and financial prudence.

Nasscom Foundation: The Cisco-Nasscom Foundation E-Governance program is designed to promote social equity and demonstrate a commitment to sustainable and inclusive development by delivering government schemes and essential services to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) through focused intervention. Trained community workers, known as 'Digital Ambassadors,' guide eligible citizens through the entire process—from informing them about available schemes and services and determining eligibility, to assisting with form completion, submission, and ensuring they receive the benefits. E-governance schemes provide a wide array of services to citizens through digital channels. This support empowers communities by enhancing their access to essential services and improving their quality of life.

NASSCOM Foundation: thingQbator is a transformative initiative that turns university students into innovators and problem-solvers. Designed as a digital makerspace, the program serves as a ‘mind gym’, where students can engage in a dynamic learning cycle enriched with mentorship programmes and workshops. These programmes cover a range of topics — from current to emerging technologies and entrepreneurial skills — ensuring participants are well-prepared for the complexities of modern business and technological landscapes. The initiative encompasses a four-stage programme, nurturing the transformation of ideas into thriving ventures. From the ideation stage to incubation, the top 10 teams are granted a seed fund of Rs 5 lakh, marking the transition of their social ventures into reality.ThingQbator has already nurtured over 60 startups that address social challenges across sectors such as education, climate impact, and healthcare. Over 30,000 course completion certificates have been issued, and over 16,000 unique students have received course completion certificates.

NIIT Foundation: The Cyber Suraksha Program is Cisco’s flagship initiative with NIIT Foundation. The initiative aims to address the escalating concern of cyber threats by empowering citizens with the necessary knowledge to recognize and respond effectively to such challenges. This program delivers a tiered curriculum—Cyber Awareness, Cyber Smart and Cyber Workforce—catering to students at various skill levels. The primary objective of the program is to raise awareness and equip individuals with the tools and strategies necessary to safeguard themselves in today's digital-first environment. The Cyber Suraksha program endeavours to cultivate cybersecurity professionals capable of combatting cybercrime while pursuing promising career opportunities. The initiative has positively impacted over 1 million individuals while over 7,000 individuals have secured Cybersecurity oriented jobs. 40% of the beneficiaries impacted are women.

Piramal Swasthya: The Niramay Program is an ambitious initiative designed to leverage technology to enhance public healthcare delivery in Assam. In partnership with the National Health Mission (NHM) of Assam, the project aims to establish a continuum of care and accelerate the adoption of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) framework. Phase one was implemented across multiple blocks in districts , while the current phase two focuses on achieving district saturation. The project enhances digital capabilities within the healthcare ecosystem, reduces risks associated with high-risk pregnancies through early identification of eligible couples, and strengthens the referral system to expedite immunization, treatment, and follow-up during maternal, prenatal, postnatal, infant, and childhood care. Additionally, it facilitates early detection of tuberculosis by streamlining the referral system for faster testing, treatment, and follow-up. The district command and control center established through this initiative improves governance and efficiency throughout the healthcare system. Watch a video about the program here.

Quest Alliance: The Future Right Skills Network (FRSN) is a collaborative initiative supported by Accenture, Cisco, JPMorgan Chase, and SAP Labs India, in partnership with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and facilitated by the NGO partner Quest Alliance. Established in 2019, the network focuses on implementing systemic changes within the Government Industrial Training Institute (Govt. ITI) ecosystem, including national and state industrial training institutes and polytechnic systems. Its goal is to provide young people with essential employability skills, digital literacy, and abilities that support their future ambitions. Recently, the collaboration introduced the "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI)" module, designed to equip ITI students with fundamental AI knowledge and prepare them for the evolving job market.

Social Alpha: Krishi Mangal is a groundbreaking initiative that supports startups addressing critical challenges in agriculture and rural livelihoods. The initiative aims to develop climate-resilient agricultural systems through deep-tech innovations that are affordable, accessible, and designed with the end-user in mind. By fostering innovation and providing market support, Krishi Mangal bridges the gap between technology development and grassroots adoption.Over its two editions, the program has supported 12 start-ups, introducing their technologies to more than 200,000 farmers and enabling over 50,000 farmers to adopt these innovations. The start-ups supported under Krishi Mangal are not only solving critical agricultural challenges but are also demonstrating the transformative potential of technology-driven solutions. Watch a video about the program here.

Villgro: Tvaran, meaning "accelerate" in Hindi, is a collaborative initiative with Villgro Innovations Foundation designed to catalyze digital innovations that empower women and drive social impact. The first edition of the accelerator focused on seven women-led startups, generating impact through market-based innovations aimed at climate change mitigation, resilience, and adaptation. The second edition seeks to foster digital innovations and develop gender-smart businesses to enhance women's participation in value chains through three pathways: 1. Digital Solutions Led by Women, 2. Digital Solutions Impacting Women, and 3. Technologies Enabling Financial Inclusion. The accelerator creates opportunities by unlocking partnerships, expanding market access, and promoting sustainable development through innovative and inclusive approaches. Watch a video about the program here.

Indus Action: In partnership with Cisco, Indus Action is working to improve access to welfare schemes under the Building and Other Construction Workers (BoCW) Act. Despite the government’s efforts and significant cess funds collected, many construction workers struggle to access their entitlements due to complex processes, low awareness, and administrative bottlenecks. The project leverages technology, policy redesign and community engagement to simplify registrations, claims, and benefit disbursal. Key interventions include developing digital public goods like eligibility engines and dashboards, streamlining processes and building capacity to sustain impact.

ActionAid India: In Tamil Nadu, Cisco joined hands with ActionAid India to champion COVID-19 vaccination efforts among vulnerable communities in Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, and Dharmapuri districts. This initiative administered 260,000 vaccine doses while conducting awareness campaigns to dispel myths and encourage vaccine uptake. With Cisco’s support, ActionAid also built local health workers’ capacity, ensuring long-term resilience and health system strengthening.

Akshaya Patra Foundation: The Akshaya Patra Foundation plays a fundamental role in delivering mid-day meals to children in schools across the country. In addition to supporting the foundation in digitizing seven state-of-the-art kitchens and two offices under their operations, the India cash grant program also collaborates with the foundation as a preferred partner in the aftermath of natural crises. In 2015, the program partnered with TAPF to provide meals following the Chennai floods. The foundation was also a key partner in the fight against COVID-19, where Cisco’s support facilitated the delivery of over 600,000 cooked meals during the pandemic’s first wave and the provision of essential grocery kits to 36,000 families in the second wave.

Bhumi: Cisco partnered with Bhumi for the Skill-Ed Program—a comprehensive initiative designed to bridge the skills gap for young job seekers. Operating in Tamil Nadu, the program offers market-relevant training in programming languages such as Python, Java and C/C++ alongside web development. It also emphasizes soft skills training to ensure holistic job readiness. The program enables collaborations with Tier 2,3,4 universities across peri-urban and rural regions of Tamil Nadu to impart technical and soft skills training to under-privileged youth, to build employability skills. Over 5,800 youth from Engineering and degree colleges have been trained and over 2,000 of them have been supported with relevant jobs.

Cisco Agri Challenge: Announced in December 2020 in partnership with the Principal Scientific Advisors Office, the Government of India, and The Nudge, this challenge was designed to identify solutions that have the potential to create impact at scale for small and marginalized farmers. The challenge mobilized agriculture startups working towards income generation and sustainable livelihoods for underserved farmers, while delivering positive economic, social, and environmental value. S4S Technologies was selected as the winner, and Bioprime Agrisolutions emerged as the runner-up. More than 800 applicants were reviewed for the challenge.

Cyber Suraksha: In its commitment to building a safer digital ecosystem, Cisco’s Cyber Suraksha initiative equipped organizations and individuals with essential cybersecurity skills and awareness. The project targeted underserved communities, small businesses, and local institutions, fostering resilience against cyber threats. Cyber Suraksha provided training in identifying risks, implementing robust security practices, and navigating the digital world with confidence. By collaborating with key stakeholders, Cisco created a culture of cybersecurity that safeguarded critical information and empowered users to thrive in an increasingly connected world.

Cyber Peace Foundation: The Cyber Keepers Project by Cisco and CyberPeace Foundation raises cybersecurity awareness among school students. Covering 5,000 students, the initiative delivered in-person training, certifications and competitions. The project also developed a WhatsApp chatbot for quick online safety guidance. By promoting cybersecurity best practices, it equips students with the knowledge to navigate the digital world safely and responsibly.

Leadership For Equity: An organization focused on systemic change in the education sector, Leadership for Equity partnered with Cisco to launch the Leadership Enhancement & Academic Development (LEAD) program—a first-of-its-kind, government-certified blended learning course for officers in the education department in the state of Maharashtra. Offered in regional languages, the compelling and research-backed content consists of contextualized field-based examples and case studies focused on program design, implementation skills, and organizational skills, such as team management for the middle-level management of the education department. These courses are relevant to officers across departments in the country. These individuals are responsible for policy implementation on ground and are the crucial connection between schools and the education department.

Pratham Books: Pratham Books has been creating engaging storybooks for over two decades to foster children's reading joy. The Cisco-Pratham Books collaboration aimed to enhance literacy in India by publishing high-quality, multilingual storybooks and over 90 new titles being published. Cisco’s partnership boosted STEAM book availability and funded physical libraries in underserved schools. Through a three-year engagement, over 2,000+ libraries, were distributed, and digital version of all books are freely available on Storyweaver.

Bal Raksha Bharat: Through “Project Pratiraksha,” Cisco and Save the Children fortified COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the districts of Balrampur and Shravasti, Uttar Pradesh. This initiative focused on the most vulnerable populations and enhanced local healthcare capacities through training and infrastructure development. Community health outreach programs and vaccination camps played a crucial role in addressing vaccine hesitancy and ensuring equitable access to life-saving immunizations.

Sikshana Foundation: Cisco supported Sikshana Foundation over a three-year period to develop and implement "Prerana 2.0"—an initiative aiming to address foundational arithmetic skills in students with needs across government-run schools in Karnataka. The program is designed to address student needs through a customized Learning-Achievement Path (CLAP). It provides an experiential learning module for all students, with an opportunity for average & above-average students to build and strengthen their 21st-century skills through Project-Based Learning (PBL). The plan to provide personalized learning was piloted across two districts of the state at scale and then implemented statewide, ultimately reaching 1.8 million students.

Swasti: With a goal to streamline data collection and processing at the end beneficiary stage, Cisco partnered with Swasti Health Catalyst to develop The Digitally Inclusive Community Engagement flow (DICEflow), a tool that offers a flexible and streamlined digital approach to engaging with communities. Scalable and flexible enough to suit the most complex processes, this product uses technology to ensure efficient data collection by field workers. DICE Flow is currently being used by 33 organizations at the grassroot level with a reach of over 700,000 people.

CMGGA—Ashoka Fellowship: The CMGGA (Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates) program is a strategic collaboration between the Government of Haryana and Ashoka University to improve governance in the state and driving a mass impact on ground. The program provides a platform to 25 young individuals, placed across 22 districts in Haryana, to work closely with the Chief Minister's Office for bringing transparency, accountability and efficiency in public service delivery in the state. These associates delivered impactful projects across livelihood, health, education, agriculture and governance resulting in poverty alleviation, improved education systems and environmental restoration. Since FY2019-20, Cisco supported 6 CMGGA associates each year to ensure smooth implementation of state government's flagship schemes. The program concluded in 2024 leaving behind a legacy of systemic improvements and meaningful community impact.