Focus on India’s Specific Innovations
As the Indian economy is increasingly embracing digital channels, Google has recently announced to invest $10 billion in India over the next 5-7 years. While announcing India Digitization fund at Google for India, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet said, “We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments.”
The investment will be allocated towards enabling affordable access and information in vernacular languages, building India focused products and services, digital transformation of businesses, and leveraging technology and AI in areas like health, education, and agriculture. Google had already tried India-specific programs Next Billion Users initiative and payments. Its AI-powered reading tutor app Bolo, now called Read-Along and UPI based payments app Google Pay are the notable examples of Google’s India focused efforts.
Other India-focused Efforts
Google’s SOS alerts in Malayalam were a part of initiative that proved handy for finding missing persons during devastating Kerala floods. Internet Saathi, a joint effort of Google and Tata Trusts, works to improve digital literacy among women from villages and trains them on how to leverage necessary technology for business and education. India is one of the critical markets for Google, and its focus on the country has been deepening as it unlocks one of the most prominent digital markets in the world.
Recently, Google-owned YouTube had launched a learning destination to supplement curriculum learning for students and also support general skill-building in April this year. In 2018, Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google, had granted $3 million to the Central Square Foundation and The Teacher App to bridge the learning gap in India. Apart from the education space, Google has also been backing local companies. So far, it has invested in a clutch of companies including CarDekho, Fynd, FreshWorks, Aye Finance, Dunzo, and Cuemath among others.
