Google is organizing to invest $10 billion in India as a way to make the Internet “affordable and useful” for the billion plus population.
CEO Sundar Pichai gave the official statement via livestream on 13th July at the yearly Google India Event.
“This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” he explained in the official statement.
“India’s own digital journey is far from complete. There’s still more work to do in order to make the internet affordable and useful for a billion Indians … from improving voice input and computing for all of India’s languages, to inspiring and supporting a whole new generation of entrepreneurs,” he added.
Google for India Digitalization Fund ensures that it will be pouring money into India’s technological sector of the economy in a span of five to seven years. The investments will be made through a combination of partnerships, equity investments and expenditure on infrastructure.
The focus of the investment is to ensure cheap and efficient access to information for every Indian living, and that too in their respective language. This information will be a great resource for people building new projects which focus on innovations of products and services in relation to India’s diversified needs. The investment will provide them with the availability of Digital Transformation and the availability of Artificial Intelligence with the levergance of technology in order to create social goods, targeting areas like health and education.
“As we make these investments we look forward to working alongside Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi and the Indian government, as well as Indian businesses of all sizes to realize a shared vision for a Digital India,” Pichai, who was born in India, said. “Our goal is to ensure that India not only benefits from the next wave of innovation but leads it.”
Too Important to ignore.
India at this moment is the world’s fastest rising internet market, with approximately more than 700 millions internet users all over the country and nearly as many yet to join for the first time. Furthermore, India has been receiving other numerous billion dollars investments in the last one and a half decade from multinational companies like Google, Netflix(NFLX), Facebook(FB) and Twitter (TWTR), which rushed to cash in on the internet boom.
The attraction of investors shows that there is a huge potential for growth in India despite red flags raised by the Government in order to control the online media. Not only does Google’s plan show that the investors are ready, but there was also a recent fundraising spree by Indian Businessman Mukesh Ambani.
Ambani’s technological hub Jio Platforms has amassed around $15.6 billion since April 2020 from the multinationals: Facebook and Intel.
However, China controls India’s mobile industry; more importantly, technological gigantics like AliBaba and Tencent, some of the major investors in India, are also controlled by China. Due to the current situation and rising tension between the economic hubs, India has banned plenty of Chinese Apps, including the very own TikTok, arguing that they are a potential threat.
On 13 July, Pichai praised Modi’s “vision for Digital India,” the government’s strategy for boosting the digital economy. “Low-cost smartphones combined with affordable data, and a world-class telecom infrastructure, have paved the way for new opportunities,” he said.
“I am very happy that Google is recognizing the great power of India’s digital empowerment, India’s digital innovation and the need to create further opportunity,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, a senior cabinet minister.
