Omidyar’s $1 Million Funding For Covid-19 To Ease Challenges In India
Impact investor firm, Omidyar Network India has invited proposals to tackle the challenges posed by the novel coronavirus outbreak, as the firm has set aside a corpus of $1 million.
As a part of the rapid response funding initiative, each proposal can get funding between $6,500 (Rs 5 lakh) and $0.3 million (Rs 2 crore), the company said.
Proposals that will help India’s lowest 60% income group mitigate and manage the challenges posed by the novel coronavirus will be funded by the company.
Omidyar said in a statement that the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and its socio-economic impacts are one of the biggest challenges of our time. To face this crisis, the whole world, donors, investors, communities, and government are coming together.
“We recognize that the slowdown will most impact the vulnerable sections of our population and large swathes of India’s ‘next half billion’, whom we seek to serve – the vendors, daily wage earners, the gig-economy workers, and small businesses,” it added.
Omidyar has set up funding for Covid-19 and invited proposals that strengthen detection, treatment and containment, enhance resilience and recovery, and support crisis management capabilities in the
wake of coronavirus outbreak. The proposals can include apps, data, and other technological solutions, proposals that seek to improve the financial restructuring of the National Housing Singh Bank workers and the small businesses affected by the Covid-19, and those on community outreach and mobilization campaigns.The proposals can also include actionable research that would improve the ability of the public and government in dealing with the crisis (for example, promoting ‘social distancing’ in the Indian context). Collaborative efforts by philanthropies, foundations, venture capital firms, and impact investing in the above areas are also encouraged.
Those proposals with time-bound interventions that can be implemented quickly, scalable solutions that leverage technology and solutions that have initial traction will be given priority.
The company has invited research organizations, social entrepreneurs, businesses and non-government organizations to make this possible on a non-profit basis.
Editor’s Note; Omidyar’s funding for Covid-19, invites proposals to tackle Covid-19 challenges
