Temasek Trust's Philanthropy Asia Alliance (PAA) announced support for two India-based impact ventures on Tuesday, marking its expansion in the Indian market. According to reports from Business Standard, the alliance backed Rocket Learning, an early age education project, and Frontier Innovations' She Leads Bharat: Udyam, a digital-first model connecting rural women shopkeepers with rural commerce platform Frontier Markets using an AI-powered app called Meri Saheli. The alliance also onboarded Mumbai-based strategic philanthropy organisation Dasra, adding to the three existing Indian members: Aditya Birla Education Trust, Shiv Nadar Foundation, and Bharti Airtel Foundation.
In three years of operations, PAA has mobilised about $615 million across 300 plus programmes across the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and West Asia, as reported by Business Standard. The alliance operates with three key mandates: health, inclusive development and climate, with India producing solutions around extreme heat impact on health and parametric insurance mechanisms. According to Shaun Seow, CEO of PAA, the next 12 months in India will be interesting as they have a pipeline of programmes and funders to look at, with India offering a rich tapestry to develop solutions that are multifaceted and ready to scale within the country and across Asia.
PAA's core strategy involves enabling two or three funders to look at programmes with multiple phases and eventually scale with government policy or private capital. As reported by Business Standard, a Vietnamese project called OneSky is an example of expansion, looking at pedagogy in lower-middle-income countries and building children's interest in STEM subjects, with the Vietnamese government now adopting it and plans to take it to the Philippines. Another initiative is a rice cultivation project funded with the Gates Foundation, with three pilots in South India, Indonesia and Laos, where stronger cooperative structures in some countries make reaching farmers easier than in others.
PAA is leveraging artificial intelligence to enhance its ambitions, with PAA, the Gates Foundation and Temasek Foundation funding a pilot programme across five Southeast Asian countries to develop a machine-learning model for detecting pathogens, viruses and bacteria. According to Business Standard, this initiative aims to trace where viruses originated more quickly by analyzing contextual information such as travel patterns from music festivals or large concerts. The alliance also focuses on responsible AI, ensuring datasets capture multiple languages to avoid biases against communities interacting in local languages.
For the Rocket Learning initiative, PAA plans to work with a local partner in the Philippines once the India initiative gains more traction, ensuring the solution is adapted rather than simply transferred to the Philippines. As reported by Business Standard, PAA aims to connect four major blocks: India, Southeast Asia, West Asia and China, with the alliance bringing members together through broad convenings such as the Philanthropy Asia Summit and events throughout the year focused on climate, health and inclusive development. The alliance currently has five communities within its membership focused on specific areas including energy transition, ocean philanthropy and health for human potential.
