New Delhi - The United States Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), announced a new partnership with the Centre for Knowledge Societies (CKS), one of India's leading innovation consulting firms, to implement a $3.2 million initiative to help improve the reading skills of millions of primary school age children in India.  As the ability to read is the most basic building block of learning, the READ (Read - Engage - Achieve - Dream) Alliance aims to prepare millions of children in India for a lifetime of reading and learning.

This initiative will create opportunities for knowledge sharing and advocate for increased attention to the issue of early literacy in India through targeted events and online collaborations. The READ Alliance will also host an innovation challenge to identify promising projects to improve reading skills in children, test their effectiveness, and help take those proven successful to scale.

This program brings together corporations, non-profit organizations, think tanks, foundations, researchers, schools, teachers, and others to promote early literacy. The READ Alliance will use Indian innovations and resources to support literacy, especially among children at high risk of not learning to read.