AT&T has operated in India since the 1980s and we continue to meaningfully invest in the country today, especially when it comes to providing tools and resources for those who need it most. AT&T Believes has initiated a program directed toward creating a positive and sustained impact in critical areas which include Education and Vocational Skills Development; Health and Human Services; and Environment- and ICT- Based Sustainability Solutions.
It’s critical we work closely on delivering programming with local organizations that have an expert grasp of the needs of their communities – all with the help of our employees who live and work in these same communities. Through our first AT&T Believes India initiative – in late 2020 – we collaborated with Akshaya Patra to sponsor 500,000 meals to help ensure children receive one wholesome midday meal at school – an effort that helps encourage and motivate children to learn.
In AT&T Believes India’s second and third years – 2021 and 2022 – we began work with Agastya International Foundation in an effort to deliver on our AT&T Connected Learning goals of helping narrow the digital divide and homework gaps by providing today’s learners with equitable opportunities to learn and thrive.
New Efforts on Rural Education
Building on our work with Agastya, we’re excited to announce we’ll be launching two Mobile Science Labs (MSLs) in India in 2023. AT&T will help Agastya reach and support more than 4,000 students and 300 teachers through two MSLs, reaching some of the most underserved students in rural parts of Telangana and Karnataka.
- The Mobile Science Lab revolutionizes rural education and makes hands-on learning increasingly accessible; each MSL travels to the doorstep of remote schools with over 100 hands-on STEM models covering a wide range of topics from the 5th to 10th grades.1
- Agastya’s mission aligns closely with our values: the organization runs one of the largest hands-on science education programs in the world, and has a mission to strive and spark curiosity, nurture creativity, and build confidence among children and teachers in India.2
“Our support of organizations like Akshaya Patra and Agastya Foundation in India directly reflects AT&T’s commitment of creating a positive change in communities where our employees live and work.”
– Mohammed Farshori, Director, AT&T Citizenship & Sustainability
In June 2022, we were pleased to make three company pledges toward the International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) Partner2Connect initiative. We recognized India as a key partner in our efforts to advance digital skills training around the world and included the country in our pledge to equip more than 3 million people in 13 countries/jurisdictions with digital skills training by 2025.
In line with this priority and commitment, we’re proud to share that this year, we’re also supporting Agastya’s Lab-on-a-Tab (LOT) digital divide initiative, which helps enable students in rural villages to access preloaded digital content on a variety of STEM topics.
AT&T’s 2023-2024 support of this initiative will enable the program to commit further to helping bridge the digital divide not only through the purchase of software and more than 400 tablets, but also through volunteer engagement, online safety training, and digital learning opportunities for more than 15,000 students across Agastya’s network.
About AT&T Believes
AT&T Believes℠ is our company-wide, localized effort to combine employees’ passion, creativity and generosity of time and resources with AT&T’s longstanding relationships with external organizations to make a positive impact around the world. AT&T Believes India was launched in November 2020 with a focus on digital learning, environment, food insecurity, community service and supporting the most underserved communities in India with the support of AT&T volunteers in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and Delhi regions. Since then, our AT&T Believes India initiative has grown to great heights – inspiring and engaging our employees through volunteer efforts that directly support the communities where we live, work and play.
On the Horizon
And we continue to grow these efforts! Additional upcoming projects include Light a Life, with the aim of reducing the homework gap for children who struggle to study in the darkness through the assembly of solar lamps to be distributed to tribal areas; as well as Plantation Drives, to continue our support for environmental projects through Miyawaki Plantations and Creating Fruit Forests; and Smart Labs, in which – through Youth for Seva – we will be setting up two Smart Labs at schools in Bangalore and Hyderabad.
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With headquarters in New Delhi/NCR region, AT&T is the first global telecom operator to directly serve the Indian market under its own international and national long distance and ISP telecommunications licenses, AT&T’s mission is to help solve the most complex IT and connectivity problems. AT&T has a significant presence in the India region and is uniquely positioned to deliver the service required by today’s enterprises, with multiple AT&T-owned nodes and Network to Network Interconnect (NNI) partners across India, including providing deep country-wide coverage from tier-1 to tier-3 cities.3 Read more about AT&T’s client offerings in India here.
