Wadhwani, who was awarded the Padma Shri in February, plans to support up to 10,000 SMEs by offering business survival, stability and growth consulting at subsidised rates to companies that are reeling due to the Covid-19 disruption.
MUMBAI: Indian-American billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Romesh Wadhwani will invest Rs 200 crore in India over three years to help out distressed small companies, upskill public health workers and fund firms innovating in Covid-19-related technologies.
Starting next month, Wadhwani Foundation will initiate ‘Sahayata’ programmes for Small Business Stability for SMEs, Covid-19 Skilling for public health workers, and Public Health Innovation. The foundation will work directly with the targeted segments.
“We saw there is going to be a major disruption in public health, immediately followed by an economic crisis,” said the founder-chief executive of Palo Alto-based Symphony Technology Group. “SMEs tend to get impacted the most as they don’t have strong balance sheets and deep reserves of resiliency that allows you to get through the cycles.”
Wadhwani, who was awarded the Padma Shri in February, plans to support up to 10,000 SMEs by offering business survival, stability and growth consulting at subsidised rates to companies that are reeling due to the Covid-19 disruption.
His foundation is partnering SIDBI, IIFL, Clix Capital, Power2SME, and Magma Fincorp, to jointly select SMEs to be part of the programme.
It plans to upskill between 500,000 to one million Anganwadi, Asha community health workers and nurse aides.
“We will provide innovation grants to up to 50 companies to help accelerate their journey in terms of manufacture of PPE and other technologies that can help improve the public health system in India,” Wadhwani said
Source: Economic Times
Economic Times