CAIT, Meta initiative to train 25,000 women traders with digital skills

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and Meta have launched an initiative to equip 25,000 women traders across India with digital skills using the WhatsApp Business App.
The first phase of 'Vyaapar Sakhi' will run from June to November 2025, offering in-person training sessions in multiple Indian languages.
The initiative aims to help women entrepreneurs build a credible online presence, showcase products, set up automated messages, and run ads on WhatsApp.
The women's wing of CAIT will lead the training, according to a release.
"India is home to millions of women-led businesses, and empowering them is not just the right thing to do; it is critical to unleashing our country's vast entrepreneurial potential.
"We believe that giving women across India, especially in tier 2 and tier 3 towns, the right digital skills and knowledge to fully unlock the potential of WhatsApp will not only help them grow their businesses but it will also enable them to better support and benefit their communities," Shivanth Thukral, Vice President and Head - Public Policy at Meta in India, said.

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On June 13, the Israeli military began striking what it claimed were nuclear targets and other sites in Iran, with the aim of stalling Tehran's nuclear programme. Iran retaliated with missile attacks on Israel. The official toll in Iran is at least 430 so far, while at least 25 persons have died in Israel. The continued exchange of fire has led to concerns of a wider regional conflict that the United States could get drawn into. Washington is an ally of Israel and acts as a guarantor of the country's security. Tehran has rejected US President Donald Trump's demand for an ' unconditional surrender ' and vowed to fight back. The prevailing uncertainty has led to a spike in global oil prices. The price of benchmark Brent crude had jumped to $78 per barrel by Thursday from $69 per barrel on June 12, the day before the conflict began. But the spike was not because of Israeli military's strikes reportedly on the Shahran oil depot in Tehran and one of Iran's largest refineries in Shahr Rey. 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'A very large chunk of India's energy supplies come from there and that could really be serious for us,' explained Suri, who served as India's ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. 'It's in our interest that it doesn't get out of hand.' India consumes 5.5 million barrels of crude per day for refining. Of this, 1.5 million barrels come through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. If the strait gets blocked, Amena Bakr, the head of Middle East and OPEC+ insights at analytics firm Kpler, told CNBC International on June 13 that oil prices could jump to three-digits. To put the impact of such a scenario into context: a spike of every $10 per barrel drives up inflation in India by about 0.5%, financial services company Morgan Stanley had estimated in April 2024. But Puri told NDTV that closing the strait was not in Iran's own interest. 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Time of India

27 minutes ago

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