Google grants $1 million for promoting news literacy in India

The funding is part of Google.org’s broader, $10 million commitment to media literacy, in collaboration with the Google News Initiative (GNI).

An illuminated Google logo is seen inside an office building in Zurich, Switzerland December 5, 2018. (REUTERS)

Google on Wednesday announced a $1 million grant for global non-profit organization Internews that will launch a new initiative to promote news literacy among the Indian public.

The funding is part of Google.org's broader, $10 million commitment to media literacy, in collaboration with the Google News Initiative (GNI), the company said in a statement.

Internews will select a team of 250 journalists, fact checkers, academics and NGO workers, who will be trained on a curriculum developed by global and Indian experts, adapted to local needs and available in seven Indian languages.

The local leaders will then roll out the training to new internet users in non-metro cities in India, enabling them to better navigate the internet and assess the information they find.

In partnership with third-party organisations like DataLeads and Internews, the GNI has so far provided in-depth verification training for more than 15,000 journalists and students from more than 875 news organizations, in 10 Indian languages.

Google last year trained journalists in online verification and fact-checking, digital safety and security, YouTube for elections coverage and data visualization for the general elections.