iWorld
Facebook announces call for applications from non-profit organisations for its CSR grant
MUMBAI: Facebook India today announced a call for applications for its CSR initiative, Facebook Pragati – powered by N/Core (The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation). The initiative will incubate and accelerate, early stage women led non-profits that are working in the areas of women entrepreneurship and to drive awareness and adoption of technology among women in India. This is a part of the Corporate Social responsibility mandate by the Government, where Facebook will work in collaboration with N/Core. Facebook Pragati will award four grants of up to 50 lakhs for each non-profit to scale their work.
Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India said, “Facebook is an ally for accelerating India’s growth and promoting inclusion is one of our key priorities. An important enabler for that is financial independence. The relative number of businesses in India run by women entrepreneurs is still very low. We are committed to helping women entrepreneurs succeed through greater access to digital platforms, funds and mentorship. Our CSR focus with Facebook Pragati will be to empower women to set-up and grow their businesses, and contribute to making the country economically and socially stronger. ”
“N/Core believes in the massive potential of women entrepreneurs to drive innovation, create jobs, unlock the power of technology, and fuel India’s economic growth. We are excited to partner with Facebook in launching Pragati and taking a significant step towards bridging the deficit for providing essential support for women entrepreneurs.” added Akshay Soni, Managing Director, N/Core Accelerator
Each of the non-profits selected for Facebook Pragati initiative will get access to:
Direct Grant: as resources to build an organization and scale operations for a greater impact. Each non-profit selected will receive a grant of upto INR 50Lac.
Mentorship: by an N/Core Partner – Kamakshi Rao (Partner, Ankur Capital); K R Lakshminaraya (Chief Endowment Officer of Azim Premji Foundation) and S K Jain (Co-founder, WestBridge Capital) amongst others. The startups will also receive hands-on support in areas like technology, marketing and human resources from renowned experts and industry leaders including Facebook’s leadership team and employee volunteers
Fund-raising: Along with improving the fundraising strategy of the nonprofits through techniques including targeting and storytelling, the program will also ensure face to face meetings with funders to enable the nonprofits to utilise and internalise the learnings, leading to greater sustainability.
Organisational capacity building: the program will work on building second tier capacity within the nonprofits, with a series of functional mentors across marketing, HR and technology. Apart from creating sustainability, this will also let the founder of organisation to spend time on strategic growth, resulting in scaling up faster.
Who can apply?
Nonprofits that are less than 3 years old and have at least one woman founder
Should be able to demonstrate a viable business plan, working in the space of women entrepreneurship and promoting use of technology in India.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
