GOOGLE’S approach to charity is as unconventional as its approach to doing business in Silicon Valley and on Wall Street.

While others may spend millions opening schools and offering books to fight illiteracy in the Third World, Google embraces technology and goes one step further. In India, Google runs a literacy programme called Planet Read that uses the cinema screen to teach people to read.

By adding same-language subtitles to India’s popular movies, audiences of thousands can read along with a film and become accustomed to reading text without even trying.

The solution is inspired: going to the cinema is India’s national pastime, exceeding even cricket in popularity, with Hindi epics and Bollywood musicals enjoyed by massive audiences.

The Google Foundation also plans to support research in western Kenya to prevent child deaths caused by unsanitary water. The company is working with the University of California, Berkeley, to better understand rural water supplies and to see how new technology could help to improve them.

The internet search engine company also runs entrepreneur competitions through its TechnoServe arm, but rather than giving awards to the best new businesses, Google runs a competition that rewards good ideas rather than offering more help to companies that are already off the ground.

All of these come from the so-called “Acumen Fund”, a non-profit private equity fund that invests in companies that are seeking to end poverty. The fund supports the development of affordable goods and services for the poor.

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