TIL Desk Lucknow:
Frontier Markets and Saral Jeevan India Foundation today announced a landmark partnership with Microsoft India to empower 25,000 rural women entrepreneurs and 5,000 women trainers with AI skills, increasing their agency, growing their businesses, and unlocking new income opportunities in the emerging digital and AI economy. This initiative represents the first phase of a long-term joint vision to build an AI-enabled rural entrepreneurship ecosystem that can scale to 1 million women entrepreneurs and 100 million rural households by 2030, in partnership with the Government of India to bring the SHG ecosystem into the AI economy. Under the NRLM, India’s SHG network comprises nearly 9 million SHGs, with close to 100 million rural women as members — making it one of the largest women-led community networks globally.
While rural smartphone ownership has surged in recent years — a 2023 survey showed ~74.8% of rural households had a smartphone, and a 2025 national survey found that 85.5% of Indian households now own at least one smartphone. This rapid digital adoption underscores the readiness and potential of rural women to engage with AI-enabled services, commerce, and financial inclusion at scale. While smartphone access has increased significantly in rural India, women entrepreneurs are not yet fully participating in the digital economy—especially in AI-led opportunities. This partnership is designed to bridge this digital divide and ensure that rural women are not left behind as AI adoption accelerates globally. By equipping women with AI capabilities and practical tools, the initiative aims to make them digitally confident, AI-savvy entrepreneurs capable of competing and thriving in today’s markets.
The partnership builds on the work of She Leads Bharat: Udyam, India’s leading rural women entrepreneurship initiative led by Saral Jeevan India Foundation and Frontier Markets, which has cumulatively empowered more than 40,000 rural women entrepreneurs, enabling access to over 10 crore essential solutions for 43 lakh rural households across more than 5,000 villages in five states over the last five years. The initiative was recently recognised by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, and has been supported by Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth as Transformational Partner and other partners including 360 ONE Foundation, SAP, Apollo Tyres, Saint Gobain and others.
The partnership with Microsoft will further elevate and strengthen She Leads Bharat’s existing network by integrating AI skills and use cases into the Meri Saheli App, enabling existing women entrepreneurs to grow their income, diversify revenue streams, and build long-term business resilience through the productive use of AI.
Through this partnership, Saral Jeevan India Foundation, Frontier Markets, and Microsoft will localize and integrate AI-skilling content and resources from Microsoft This content will be translated into Hindi and Telugu and contextualized to meet the unique needs of rural women entrepreneurs in India, and delivered directly through the AI-enabled Meri Saheli App of Frontier Markets and WIDB platform. The developed assets will be shared with national and state rural development, skilling, and entrepreneurship departments and integrated into existing government systems, including the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) and state-level SHG programs, which collectively reach over 100 million rural women mobilized across 9 million self help groups across India as of January 2025 as per Ministry of Rural Development .
Speaking on partnership, Ajaita Shah, Founder & CEO, Frontier Markets, said: “This partnership with Microsoft marks a pivotal step in advancing rural women’s economic empowerment. As AI reshapes every industry, we must ensure that India’s rural women—who already demonstrate extraordinary resilience and entrepreneurial capacity—are equipped to participate and lead in this transformation. With Microsoft’s support, we are building an evidence-backed model that can be adopted nationwide and scaled to one million women entrepreneurs by 2030.”
This excitement was echoed by Manju Dhasmana, CSR Lead, Microsoft India, who added: “At Microsoft, we believe technology must drive inclusion and create equitable opportunities for all. AI is not just a tool for innovation—it is a catalyst for gender empowerment. Through our partnership with Saral Jeevan India Foundation and Frontier Markets, we are ensuring that AI skilling reaches the last mile, enabling rural women to harness technology meaningfully to improve their livelihoods. This collaboration will also generate critical insights to embed AI skilling into India’s rural development systems at scale, fostering both inclusion and impact.”
Speaking on the partnership to welcome Microsoft India, Subhashini Chandran, Senior Vice President, Social Impact APEMEA, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, added: “Our support for She Leads Bharat: Udyam demonstrates the critical role philanthropy plays in building a strong foundation for inclusive growth. We are thrilled to see other players joining in to strengthen this initiative, which has already demonstrated its potential to transform the lives of rural women-owned micro and small enterprises. “
In partnership with Microsoft, the She Leads Bharat initiative, anchored by Saral Jeevan India Foundation and Frontier Markets, is poised to accelerate a national movement toward a gender-inclusive AI economy, delivering long-term impact for India’s rural communities and serving as a model for the Global South.
