Facebook seeks to extend 'Boost Your Business' program for villages in India

giant social media Facebook said Friday it is looking to expand extends program "Boost Your Business" to the villages of India to help entrepreneurs improve their business prospects.

"We're doing a lot of different initiatives specifically contemplated to the arts and crafts of India who live in the villages. The challenge we face now is the extension of this," Head of Initiatives of economic growth for India Facebook Ritesh Mehta he told PTI in Bangalore.

"So we're going to try to work with the organization that will help us scale because a company can do a limited amount of things. But if we partner with 10 NGOs or governments, then together we can do much more," he added.

Arts and crafts is an area of ​​very great interest for Facebook is running an initiative for rural entrepreneurs, he said.

"When we visited five cities in Uttar Pradesh, actually we went to the people, not just the cities. When we were in Benares, also went Benares so, where weavers live and show them the use of the Facebook page. Just as Kanauj and did in Kanpur, "he said.

Facebook is starting to work with NGOs like Seva in Gujarat that have a huge network of rural artisans, he said.

When asked how many associations Facebook has hit to take the program cities and towns, Mehta said, "Right now we are not ready to announce the collaboration with NGOs, but we work with them to different initiatives."

Mehta also said that Facebook is in talks with the government of Karnataka, but do not have a formal package to bring this program to cities throughout the state.

"We are in the conversation, but do not have a formal package from now. We love to have this program to other cities across Karnataka," he said.

Asked why not Karnataka was the first destination to implement the initiative, especially in Bangalore is considered a hotbed for network connectivity, said that before talking with the government, which wanted to be sure to set your initiative in Bangalore .

"We've begun to do that," Mehta said.

He said he had so far covered seven cities in India including Hyderabad and Bangalore and 4,000 trained women entrepreneurs. At the end of the year, Facebook aims to cover 20 to 25 cities, training of women entrepreneurs using technology in Facebook to enhance your business prospects, Mehta said.

"This year our goal is to cover four or five other states.

Other than that our goal is to cover another eight to 10 cities.

It is likely that at the end of the year we should have gone to 20 to 25 cities, "he said.

"We have cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Indore already listed in our calendar, in which he would visit," he added.