Uninor gets presidential support for bringing value-added services to Indian women

Uninor is one of the three mobile operators selected by the Indian government to help underprivileged women in India. This new project makes value-added services available to women via the mobile phone, in order to provide them with useful information on health, education and finance.

Building on the mWomen project

This initiative builds on Uninor’s existing GSMA mWomen Citizen Centres project. Through the mWomen project, Uninor has teamed up with the public charitable trust, Hand in Hand, to bring Internet access to people in rural areas, addressing the communications needs of people who have previously been unconnected.

“With the Sanchar Shakti project we are leveraging on an existing partnership which will help strengthen our brand and governmental relations in India,” said Madhu Sing Sirohi, Head of Corporate Responsibility and Environment, Uninor.

Reaching 1,000 women in 2011

Uninor’s value-added services, through the Sanchar Shakti project, have so far been tested by 50 women. This figure will be scaled up to 1,000 women throughout the year. The value-added services offer information on the following topics:

• Health offerings – information with particular focus on women’s health, children’s health and common diseases
• Education offerings – English language training and information to secure a better life and livelihood (e.g. solar energy, organic farming, bio-diesel and bio-farming)
• Finance offerings – services available to increase financial literacy and to offer savings and insurance products through the mobile phone

Uninor is committed to business-integrated CR

“This is a good example of an “Enable” project in line with the Group CR strategy where we build on our core business to reach out to marginalized groups. Once again, Uninor demonstrates its commitment to business-integrated corporate responsibility,” said Mai Oldgard, Vice President and Head of Corporate Responsibility in Telenor Group.