According to the Press Trust of India, four Indian organisations have been selected among 14 recipients across the Asia Pacific for grants under the APAC Sustainability Seed Fund 2.0, supported by a USD 5 million grant from Google.org, the tech giant's philanthropic arm.
Managed by the Asian Venture Philanthropy Network (AVPN), the fund aims to promote AI-driven solutions that address critical environmental and social challenges.
The selected Indian recipients include INREM Foundation, CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF), Institute for Financial Management and Research (WELL Labs), and Gujarat Mahila Housing Sewa Trust (MHT), according to a statement by Google.org. INREM Foundation will develop AI-powered open digital solutions to provide communities with access to water contamination data, while CRDF will use machine learning and satellite imagery to protect lakes and their carbon sink function. WELL Labs plans to create advanced models for village-level water security insights, and MHT will develop an AI-powered tool to identify urban heat islands and propose community-driven solutions.
This initiative follows Google.org's previous $3 million grant to APAC Sustainability Seed Fund 1.0, which supported projects that saved over 13 million tonnes of water and reduced 3,700 tonnes of carbon emissions in India's agriculture sector.
