Sundar Pichai To Host Google’s Event In India; Special Announcement For SMEs On Its Way

Keeping up with its annual tradition, Google CEO Sundar Pichai is in India to host an event on January 4, 2017. The event is expected tosee an announcement around small and medium (SMEs) businesses in India.

The event will also see the presence of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Information and Technology, Government of India. The event will take place in Delhi and will reportedly be focussed around enterprises.

The invite reads, “Small and Medium Businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy and are powering the next wave of the country’s growth. At Google, we are excited about partnering with businesses to help them unlock exponential growth through the power of digital. We invite you to join Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other senior leaders from Google as they shine a spotlight on how digital can be a game changer for Indian SMBs.”

Earlier in September 2016, Google announced a ‘Cloud region’ for India, which is expected to be up and running in 2017 and will include multiple data-centres. Google rebranded its cloud business geared towards enterprises as Google Cloud, and renamed Google Apps for Work as G Suite. G Suite includes Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, etc.

In the same month, Google also announced five new products that are tailored for expanding access to the Internet for Indian users. These comprise new products built specifically for India, such as YouTube Go, the Google Assistant in Hindi for Allo, faster browsing for Google Play on 2G connections. It also included global platforms inspired by the needs of Indian users such as the Google Station WiFi platform and new data-saving features in Google Chrome for mobile.

During his last visit in December 2015, he announced Google’s plans to connect 10 Mn rail passengers with Internet by bringing WiFi availability to various stations. The programme was a part of Google’s Access & Energy Team in partnership with RailTel India. The partnership aimed to provide access points at 100 train stations across India in 2016, and then expand to 400 stations nationwide. 

Till now Google has set up free WiFi at over 100 railway stations in India, with Mumbai Central being the first.

(This development was reported by The Indian Express.)