Files from Samira Balsara
Alberta invests almost $2 million for a program that opens more job opportunities for women in technology, the co-founder of Zypp Electric is opening doors for women in the electric vehicle industry, and women are breaking into the cryptocurrency and NFT space with inclusive and accessible innovations.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday, March 8, and I’m your host, Pragya Sehgal.
Alberta is investing $1.9 million into a program to open more job opportunities for women in Calgary’s technology sector. Alberta’s Advanced Education Minister made the announcement in late February. As part of the program, the minister says his government will provide the money to an Amazon Web Services (AWS) pilot program that will assist up to 40 women with training and connections to the local IT and cloud-computing sectors. The investment is part of a two-year research and innovation grant. The program, called AWS re/START, is accepting applications now and will begin May 2, running over a 20 week period.
Rashi Agarwal, co-founder and chief business officer of Zypp Electric is creating space for women in the electric vehicle industry. Zypp Electric is India’s Leading Tech-Enabled EV-as-a-Service platform. Its business model is to make carbon-free last-mile delivery for local merchants to e-commerce giants to delivery executives, reducing delivery cost and pollution on an asset-light model. In an interview for The Hindu, Agarwal says the EV sector is extremely male-dominated and Zypp and companies alike need to help bridge that gap. Zypp has 50 female riders currently associated with them and Agarwal says she is looking to have “at least 50 per cent of the total employee strength in Zypp to be women.”
In a 2021 survey it was revealed that women have invested less in digital and traditional investments compared to men. For example, according to the survey, men invest twice as much as women in cryptocurrency, exchange-traded funds and individual stocks. However, women are making significant moves, breaking into the cryptocurrency and NFT space, making accessible and inclusive innovations. Here are some examples of women who are breaking the bias. Krista Kim is the first digital artist to exhibit at the iconic square of Palais de Tokyo Museum and the Museum of Modern art of Paris for Nuit Blanche in 2018. Kim’s goal is to promote digital humanism in the art industry and in 2021, she sold the first digital house in the world Mars House for $50 million. Mahila Abidi, is an artist, activist, author and NFT creator. She is working to bring over 10,000 girls and women to the NFT world by the end of the year. Her NFT collection “Women Rise” which aims to work on women’s rights and education has generated $13.6 million.
And now for something even more inspiring for women. Have you visited Google today? To celebrate International Women’s Day, Google is honouring the varied contributions of women in an animated doodle slideshow that takes users around the world for a glimpse of the everyday lives of women in different cultures and how they are making a difference. The Google Doodle for Tuesday is illustrated by Doodle art director Thoka Maer who says she hopes that after seeing the Doodle, women feel appreciated and valued for their contribution.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Pragya Sehgal.
