Grants of $3.3 million and $4 million, respectively, were made available to Wadhwani AI’s CottonAce app and the CyberPeace Foundation by Google.org, the company’s charitable arm.
While the CyberPeace Foundation will use the grant to create and carry out national awareness- and capacity-building initiatives, Wadhwani AI will use the funds to develop artificial intelligence that will benefit farmers throughout India.
The CottonAce app lets farmers submit photos of pests for analysis by artificial intelligence (AI), which results in data-driven solutions for mitigating damage to cotton crops. The business has now expanded to include fighting pests in other Indian crops in addition to helping farmers manage pests in cotton fields. The company claims that the app has helped farmers make 20% more money and cut pesticide costs by 25%. It also offers real-time information on crop prices, farming methods, and weather.
Vineet Kumar founded the CyberPeace Foundation, an advocacy group for cybersecurity that seeks to provide 40 million Indians with fact-checking methods and guidelines for responsible online behavior through an extensive online learning center with resources available in more than 15 Indian languages.
Among the 15 organizations worldwide to benefit from Google.org’s $25 million philanthropy challenge are Wadhwani AI and the CyberPeace Foundation.
