Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times: Asian Innovation, Inclusion, and Impact during COVID-19

ASIA BUSINESS COUNCIL HONG KONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 4 9 Lenovo (Mainland China) Extraordinary Endeavors in Turbulent Times initiatives in Latin America. For example, the company contributed to distance education for LGBTQ+ middle school students in Argentina. 8 Addressing Systemic Problems in Education in India But Lenovo also went beyond hardware donations to address systemic problems in education that were exacerbated by the pandemic. In April 2020, Lenovo launched SmarterEd, a free online student-teacher matching platform, in collaboration with eVidyaloka, to tackle the estimated shortage of 1 million teachers in India due to lack of access to technology. EVidyaloka is a Bangalore-based educational non-profit (“vidya” means education and “loka” refers to human connections), which was founded in 2011 with the goal of providing education to Indian students living in remote communities. Within the first four months of launching the SmarterEd platform, the initiative was able to electronically recruit over 11,000 volunteer teachers from 654 cities and almost 15,000 students from 571 cities. The innovative aspect of SmarterEd was the use of smart technology via algorithms and an online questionnaire on learning and teaching styles to facilitate matching between students and teachers. The platform also caters to learners from across the country by supporting multiple languages used in India, from English to Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu. In a recent report, UNESCO identified South Asia as one of the regions where stu- dents are at highest risk for not returning to school following school closures. 9 The A student in Hubei Province receives his new tablet and reads the letter from Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yang Yuanqing