Hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s conversation with Google CEO Sundar Pichai on a wide range of subjects, especially use of technology to further education, agriculture and “re-skilling” the country’s workforce, the latter on Monday announced a Google for India Digitisation Fund through which the company would invest Rs 75,000 crore over the next five to seven years to drive digital transformation in the country.
“We will do this through a mix of equity investments, partnership investments, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” the Google CEO said during the Google for India virtual conference.
The fund will focus on four areas that are important to India’s digitisation. These include enabling affordable access to the internet and to information for every Indian in their own language and building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs including consumer tech, education, health and agriculture.
The Google for India Digitisation Fund will also focus on empowering businesses especially small and medium businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation.
Another area of focus will be leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for social good, including digital literacy, outbreak predictions, and support for rural economies, Pichai said.
Giving a special address at the event, India’s Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad expressed hope that with this new fund, Google will also focus on promoting the country’s startups further. “There is immense scope for Google to deploy artificial intelligence and undertake new initiatives in the field of agriculture, weather prediction, healthcare in the wake of Covid-19 challenges and most importantly in digital education,” Prasad said. “Today, India’s app economy is growing very powerfully, but we must not just download apps. It is important also to upload apps from India,” he added.
The Google CEO on Monday interacted with PM Modi on a wide range of subjects, particularly leveraging the power of technology to transform the lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs. In the virtual meeting with Pichai, the PM also discussed the new work culture that is emerging during the Covid-19 crisis.
“This morning, (I) had an extremely fruitful interaction with Sundar Pichai. We spoke on a wide range of subjects, particularly leveraging the power of technology to transform the lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs,” Modi said in a series of tweets.
With agency inputs