Activity Description: Mitra Mandal is an e-cooperative being set up for empowerment of disadvantaged women. The hi-tech cooperative will focus on the key question of sustainability and replicability. A Women's Core Group with the aptitude and ability to institutionalize the cooperative will be identified. As far as training, placement, and income generation are concerned, the Core Group will be supported by a network of professional and partner institutions who in turn will be backed by a consortium of public/private sector agencies. Mitra Mandal will function via community centers in such a way that the surrounding population will be exposed to different aspects of computer-based earning/learning. In due course, these centers will become focal points for services like e-health and e-education. Mitra Mandal was one of 10 organizations chosen to receive the 2002 Digital Partners' Most Promising Social Enterprise (MPSE) Award.