The/Nudge Centre for Rural Development is set to invest Rs 200 crore to support rural livelihoods and to help poor households access Government programs, subsidies, schemes, and private sector investment. Called Asha Kiran – the Hope Project, this initiative is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, Hindustan Unilever Foundation, FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence, HT Parekh Foundation, Godrej, RBL Bank, and KPMG among others.

Focused on Uttar Pradesh as the primary State along with neighbouring geographies, Asha Kiran will build upon government priorities and programs, to scale high-impact models, in PARTNERSHIP with the government. Asha Kirans implementation partners include Transform Rural India Foundation, Indus Action, Magic Bus, Heifer International, Trust Community Livelihoods, The Goat Trust, Haqdarshak and others.

Asha Kiran is acting as a force-multiplier and scaling targeted, high-impact and cost-effective interventions which include enabling access to MGNREGS and PDS, input distribution and kitchen gardens to provide immediate relief in addition to improving agricultural incomes through high value crops, productivity and market linkages and adding secondary income via goatery & backyard . Asha Kirans Investment of Rs 200 crores is likely to unlock 800 crore rupees to 1000 crore rupees worth of benefits for rural communities through access to government schemes and private sector investments.