PayU Strengthens Rural India with Cyber Awareness and Women Entrepreneurship

The fintech major’s 2025 CSR initiatives increased digital safety skills and income generation across Karnataka and Maharashtra villages.

PayU's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) goal was advanced in 2025 with an array of initiatives focusing on digital safety, financial inclusion, and sustainable livelihoods. Since 2024, the company's initiatives have directly helped around fifty thousand rural recipients, over 140 women in Maharashtra villages, and about 450 students and instructors throughout India.

PayU teamed up with organizations like the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) and NeevJivan NGO to provide focused interventions in line with India's priorities for financial inclusion and digitization as part of its initiatives to close the digital divide.

PayU held cybersecurity awareness sessions in rural Karnataka as part of the Cyber for Youth Program, which was carried out with the DSCI. The sessions give lecture topics including preventing cyberbullying, social media safety, and digital payment scams with interactive tests, poster competitions and live demonstrations in local languages. Assessments taken both before and after the sessions revealed that participating students' understanding had improved by 62.5 percent to 82.3 percent in various schools.

According to Richa Mukherjee, Senior Director – Corporate Affairs and Public Policy, PayU, the company focus on social impact goes beyond financial inclusion; they're building digitally safe and economically empowered communities from the ground up. Also, these programs represent their conviction that technology and entrepreneurship can change lives.

Through its Model Village Program, which was carried out in the Maharashtra regions of Nashik, Dahanu and Jawhar in partnership with the NeevJivan NGO, PayU has also concentrated on women's economic development. Vermicomposting, beekeeping, mushroom farming and chicken farming are examples of sustainable livelihood practices that were introduced by the initiative. After getting branding support and 30 to 45 days of entrepreneurship instruction, participants established 14 income projects and new sources of income for their families.

Through this partnership with Teach for India, PayU improved their education based CSR initiatives. Through mentorship sessions, senior executives from the company shared their knowledge of technology, entrepreneurship and career development with more than 450 students and educators.