Sundar Pichai, Google and Alphabet CEO announced a $10 billion investment in India on Monday, this was at the Google for India virtual live-steam event. Besides contributing to focussing on accelerating India’s digital economy, the event also talked about this investment opportunity that would see results in the upcoming five to seven years.
To quote him, “Today, I’m excited to announce the Google for India Digitisation Fund. Through this effort, we will invest ₹75,000 crores, or approximately $10 billion, into India over the next 5-7 years. We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.”
Reports state that firstly, the INR. 75,000 crore investment would be focussing on helping in enabling affordable access, as well as information to every India, without any discrimination on language. Next, efforts would be made to address India’s unique needs by various products and services. Also, the huge investment would be helping local businesses to move towards digital transformation. Additionally, it would also be working on inculcating Artificial Intelligence in areas such as health, education, and the like.
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Pichai even cited the example of the AI flood forecasting system that would be of help while warning and evacuating areas that are likely to get affected by natural disasters. To ease things out, ‘Bolo’ aka Read Along – an AI-powered reading tutor app come to help while teaching kids to read and learn on their own.
The tech mogul also stressed on the success of programs like ‘Internet Saathi’ and also claimed that it has been helping over 30 million women pan India to equip themselves with digital skills and also incorporate them into their lives and their communities.
Lastly, PM Narendra Modi also was lauded by Pichai as he implemented his vision ‘Digital India’ that has made internet accessible to a billion Indians through cheap smartphones, affordable data, and world class telecom infrastructure.
In an interaction with a national publication, when asked if this $10 billion fund would be making lots of venture-type investments in small companies, Pichai held the view that at this point in time, he doesn’t want to comment on specific companies. Yet, he assured that Google is definitely going to look at both, and a combination of venture capital, like the same way in which they have been doing it through Google Ventures in India and also scaling it the same way. He even mentioned that given the size of the digitisation fund, there is of course an opportunity to invest directly in bigger companies also.
While talking about sharing anonymous data with the Government, Pichai maintained that there definitely is an opportunity to use technology in order to drive for the social good. Google has already done it in education, he further cited on their recent work in flood forecasting in India. Thus, he said that Google is definitely happy to partner with Governments in compliance with laws, specifically because in a democratic society, there is a right framework.
He further stressed that privacy regulation is of utmost importance, at a time when the pace of digital transformation is at its high, stating that he knows that PM Modi has made strides with privacy legislation. Talking about the local talent Pichai mentioned that India has access to a large market, a strong entrepreneurial and venture capital foundation to look after this. Google is also trying to develop apps in India, and is quite excited by the vision, by investing in the companies already facilitating that.