India is at the forefront of global tech innovation. At the CNBC-TV18 and Google initiative – Digital India Vision 5.0, leading executives from the US multi-national tech company said that the government’s Digital India programme had made internet a strong tool in the hands of the people. Caesar Sengupta, Vice President Payments & Next Billion Users, Google, said that the future of internet lay with the next billion users and India, thanks to government empowerment, is at the centre of that change.

Making Android Available

The efforts to make Android available for many more people at a lower cost and of high quality, was an effort in that direction.

Highlighting the significance, Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and Vice President, Google India, said that today, solving for India meant solving for the world.

Google Apps

The company had designed and developed the Google Pay app for India, which has now been rolled out globally. Another app, Google Bolo, was introduced to teach Indian children in many languages. “Today, more than 3 million kids are using it over 28,000 villages downloading more than 28 million stories. As it developed, we realised this could be taken out globally. India is giving us the chance to innovate globally”, said Sanjay Gupta.

Education big interest area

Education remains a big interest area for Google, who are in partnership with CBSE, where the company is enabling around a million teachers to go digital to teach from home.

With Digital India initiatives panning out exponentially, Google has announced a big initiative with Maharashtra government where 2.4 crore children in the state will imbibe hybrid learning by using the power of apps like Google Classroom and Google Bolo.

Vernacular usage

According to Caesar Sengupta, one of the big segments coming up in India is vernacular usage and the fact is that the next billion users prefer video voice as a format to engage with.

With rapid digitalisation in the last five years, Google’s big focus is trying to figure out the right information to give to users, enabling them to use voice and video and put into motion plans about how best it could be translated to education and other services.

Covid as test case

Covid-19 is a test case for what consumers are looking for. They want accurate information in their own language on the phone or through internet. Google is partnering with the ministry of health and family welfare and the WHO to provide that most credible information.

This is a partnered post.