Google & parent company Alphabet Inc. CEO Sundar Pichai, at the annual ‘Google for India 2020’ event, has announced a $10 Billion ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’ for acceleration of India’s digital economy
Google, the world’s largest internet giant, aims to connect a billion people to the power of the cyber space across the globe, especially in India. ‘Google for India’ in its commitment to systematize global information and make it unanimously accessible around the world has found more than required relevance in today’s ‘pro-mobile’ arena. It further intends to come to the rescue of every Indian to easily connect to the internet and fulfil their needs in order to make an optimistic impact on the society, at large. The tech major’s ultimate goal is to achieve this with softwares, programs and products that will have an Indian user at its nucleus.
Google and Alphabet Inc. CEO, Sundar Pichai; alongside Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Jutsice, Government of India; Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Minister of Human Resource Development, Government of India; and other senior Google leaders, in the latest edition of the ‘Google for India’ event shared with the world the ways in which they are working towards making the internet helpful for a billion Indian people and multiple ways in which they aspire to contribute to India’s journey to becoming the leading digital economy in the world!
Pichai, while beginning his speech at the event, expressed immense pleasure in mentioning how Google for India has always been “a very special time” for him and he wished he could make the ‘big’ announcement personally.
Pichai went on to speak about how the biggest challenge at this point of time during the COVID-19 pandemic has been the fact that we are unable to visit our family, friends and loved ones owing to the social distancing norms that have been put in place. At such times, the ability to establish an online presence has been nothing short of a lifeline for many of us. Whether it is a small business trying to stay afloat, a parent looking for how to keep the family fit and running or a student trying to keep up with his curriculum, Google, at such critical times works tirelessly to bring together global information and ensure that it reaches every nook and cranny of the world.
Pichai further went on to narrate an anecdote from his childhood explaining how technology provided a window to a world outside his own and brought them closer together as a family. He says, “Every evening, we were drawn to the television by Doordarshan’s special rendition of “Saare Jahan Se Accha”. I tried explaining this to my colleagues the other day, but I eventually gave up and just showed it to them on YouTube.” He pointed out how, in earlier times, every new piece of technology created new opportunities to learn and expand one’s potential for learning.
However, one always had to wait for it to arrive from some other place. Today, times have changed to such an extent, that people in India no longer have to wait long hours for technology to reach them. A whole new generation of technologies are being born right here, in India!
Pichai recollected flashes of excitement on young peoples’ faces when they access latest apps and services with their smart-phones especially in rural India. He made a mention of the commendable effort of the 2,500+ YouTube content creators in the country that have made their mark in the field of digital content creation and have over a million subscribers each!
Speaking of how innovations that have started in India can benefit the rest of the world, but India’s own digital journey is far from complete, Pichai mentioned various investments made in Indian businesses through Google as well as through their own growth equity investment fund, CapitalG. Furthermore, he spoke of how the most thrilling triumph tale has been that of digitisation of small businesses. He enlightened the viewers on how just about four years ago, only one-third of small businesses in India had an online identity and today, about 26 million SMBs are discoverable on Google Search and Google Maps, driving connections with more than a million users each month. So also, small scale merchants, vendors, shopkeepers etc are now well equipped with the system of digital payments. This development has enabled small businesses to become a part of the formal market and improve their way in to credit. Digital mode of payments have also allowed families across the country to access goods and services during the COVID pandemic-led lockdown with ease and without the stress of having to move out of their homes.
All this progress where India has managed to bring millions of Indians online, as per Pichai, has been possible only due to the sturdy groundwork of digital connectivity and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for a ‘Digital India.’ At Google, Pichai says, they are proud to be partners to India’s journey towards digitization right from 2004 when they inaugurated their first offices in Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The focus during those days was to get access to easy and helpful data to Indian users through Google Search; whether it was searching for their favourite Bollywood star of getting latest cricket scores – the aim was to make that happen through Google!
Owing to the fact that creating products for India first has aided Google in building better products for the global audience, Pichai went on to make the big announcement wherein he announced the ‘Google for India Digitization Fund’ and the ways in which, through this initiative, the company will invest a handsome purse of Rs. 75,000 Crores that is approximately 10 Billion Dollars in India, over a span of the next five to seven years. This will be done through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. Pichai, at this point, mentioned how making this announcement is a reflection of their confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.
The investment, as per Pichai, will focus on four vital areas that are crucial to India’s digital expertise:
First: Enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it is Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other language.
Second: Building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs.
Third: Empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation and;
Fourth: Leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence for social good in areas like health, education and agriculture.
Moreover, Pichai expressed his happiness over making these investments and working alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian Government as well as Indian businesses, of all sizes, to realise their shared vision for a better Digital India. In addition, commenting on whether he looks at the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative by PM Modi as a looming threat for American companies such as Google itself, Pichai said that his company is making every possible effort to develop apps in India and invest in firms that are developing these apps. “We want to help play a small role in accelerating that trend. We are definitely happy to partner with governments in compliance with the laws in a democratic society,” he said.
This 10 billion dollar-investment is part of Google’s plan to elevate operations in India and ensure its participation in the growing digital ecosystem. India, being the world’s second most populated country, houses nearly 500 million internet users and over 450 million smart-phone operators, which means that almost half of India’s population is yet to experience the ‘online’ world. Thus, Pichai says that the Google Digitization Fund will look to make investments in the form of combinations of venture capitals as well as direct investment in large-cap companies.
That aside, other senior global leaders at Google announced a partnership with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to offer digital learning modules across schools in India. Google is set to join hands with 1 million teachers across 22,000 CBSE schools across India by the end of the year.
Offering his valuable insights at the event, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “India’s app economy is growing very powerfully, but we must not just download apps. It is also important to upload apps from India. I am sure with this new fund; Google will also focus on promoting our startups further.”
Analysing Google’s interest in India, it is noteworthy that Google has always seen the big picture for the country. From Google Pay and Google Maps to Google Assistant and Google Translate, there are a variety of examples of India-first innovations that have made it on the global charts, few of which include Tez (Google Pay) launched in September 2017; Plus Codes, an open source location based digital addressing system launched in March 2018; Bolo (Read Along) a reading app encouraging children to read aloud launched in March 2019; Food and Night Shelters on Google Maps; Search Assistant and KaiOS launched in April 2020; and many more.
Sundar Pichai also mentioned that, undoubtedly, the circumstances today are tough, not just in India but also around the globe. The dual challenge to our health as well as economy has left us with no choice but to re-think the way we work and the way we live. However, such challenging times can lead to incredible moments of innovation. Pichai, while being hopeful that the big-billion fund disbursal towards upliftment of the Indian digital economy will not just benefit the next wave of innovation but lead it, says that working together will ensure that the best days are yet to come!
