Apple environment chief visits rural Indian school where donated iPads are part of curriculum
As part of Apple's tour of India, the company's environment and government affairs chief Lisa Jackson visited a school in Rajasthan this week to meet with so-called "solar mamas," or women trained in the manufacture and assembly of solar lamps build solar powered lanterns.
Apple VP Lisa Jackson visits The Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India. | Source: Lisa Jackson via Twitter
On Wednesday, Jackson traveled to Tilonia in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, a small village best known as the home to The Barefoot College. The non-profit organization was founded by social activist Sanjit "Bunker" Roy and serves as both a school and community outreach center, reports Indio-Asian News Service via Yahoo.
Despite its remote location and limited funds, Barefoot College uses iPads to train students in a variety of advanced technology disciplines including photovoltaic engineering projects. Apple India donated 20 iPads and 10 Macs to the school this year, reports The Better India.
"Powerful: Visiting amazing solar mamas in Rajasthan and visiting a school using iPads to teach." Jackson said in a tweet.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the school was founded in 1972. Since the 1990s, students, mostly older semi-literate or illiterate women from developing countries, learn the ins and outs of sophisticated technological systems.
In particular, the "solar mamas" Jackson visited are trained to handle PV systems and batteries, build solar lanterns and establish local electronic workshops in their home town to conduct repairs. The effort has helped to significantly improve living conditions in hundreds of villages across the region.
Jackson embarked on her Barefoot College detour as Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives like COO Jeff Williams conducted business meetings in Mumbai. The visit coincides with the announcement of two major Apple initiatives in the country. Tuesday brought news of an upcoming iOS design and development center in Bengaluru set to open next year, while Apple today announced it will hire up to 4,000 workers to further Maps products at a dedicated development center in Hyderabad.
Apple VP Lisa Jackson visits The Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India. | Source: Lisa Jackson via Twitter
On Wednesday, Jackson traveled to Tilonia in the Ajmer district of Rajasthan, a small village best known as the home to The Barefoot College. The non-profit organization was founded by social activist Sanjit "Bunker" Roy and serves as both a school and community outreach center, reports Indio-Asian News Service via Yahoo.
Despite its remote location and limited funds, Barefoot College uses iPads to train students in a variety of advanced technology disciplines including photovoltaic engineering projects. Apple India donated 20 iPads and 10 Macs to the school this year, reports The Better India.
"Powerful: Visiting amazing solar mamas in Rajasthan and visiting a school using iPads to teach." Jackson said in a tweet.
According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the school was founded in 1972. Since the 1990s, students, mostly older semi-literate or illiterate women from developing countries, learn the ins and outs of sophisticated technological systems.
In particular, the "solar mamas" Jackson visited are trained to handle PV systems and batteries, build solar lanterns and establish local electronic workshops in their home town to conduct repairs. The effort has helped to significantly improve living conditions in hundreds of villages across the region.
Jackson embarked on her Barefoot College detour as Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top executives like COO Jeff Williams conducted business meetings in Mumbai. The visit coincides with the announcement of two major Apple initiatives in the country. Tuesday brought news of an upcoming iOS design and development center in Bengaluru set to open next year, while Apple today announced it will hire up to 4,000 workers to further Maps products at a dedicated development center in Hyderabad.
Comments
Whether all this D&G is justified or not doesn't matter. Eventually perception becomes reality. This seems a lot like 2013 when Samsung and the Galaxy S3 were the hottest thing and people were calling for the board to replace Tim Cook. Only difference is we still had large screen phones and China Mobile coming in 2014. What do we have now to offset this negative perception and the meme that everyone is killing it except Apple?
Maybe India will work out and take care of sale loss in China.
Guy English was on Gruber's podcast two weeks ago and the two of them were joking around about how Apple screws their customers on iCloud storage. It has never occurred to either of these two Apple blogger geniuses that maybe the company doesn't have the server and network capacity built out yet to handle the load of everybody's pictures and music.
Gruber got his fat ego handed to him all limp and deflated today after ragging on Siri yesterday. Hilarious eating of crow is the one thing he managed to post, sheepishly, today. That's another thing. These clowns expect Apple to be great like Google in services already, like they're great in hardware. Is Google great in hardware?
speaking of worrying old nag, what's wrong with you lately? What's this about Apple "sucking up" to India and to the hip-hop market? Why has that become your favorite phrase all of a sudden?
Maybe ask Nike or any other company that sells shoes?
Did you ever trade in your Ford Taurus? What really happened to the Neanderthals?
'We have some great stuff in the pipeline you just won't be able to live without'?
I don't see how you can have both secrecy and a believable narrative, beyond 'trust me'.