To help accelerate India's digital economy, Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday, July 13, announced a $10 billion Google for India Digitization Fund. The company will be investing approximately Rs 75,000 crore over the next five to seven years to help India go digital.
Taking to Twitter, the Google CEO said, "Today at #GoogleForIndia we announced a new $10B digitization fund to help accelerate India's digital economy. We're proud to support PM @narendramodi's vision for Digital India - many thanks to Minister @rsprasad & Minister @DrRPNishank for joining us."
During the Google for India virtual conference, Sundar Pichai said, "Being helpful in these moments is at the core of Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
Today, people in India no longer have to wait for technology to come to you. A whole new generation of technologies are happening in India first," Pichai added.
The Google CEO also said that this will be done through a mix of equity investment, partnerships and an operational infrastructure ecosystem in India. "This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy," Pichai added.
The investment will focus on four areas important to India's digitisation. These are:
- First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it's Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other
- Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India's unique needs
- Third, empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation
- Fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture
India's Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was also present during the virtual conference.
PM Modi interacts with Sundar Pichai on new work culture
Meanwhile, interacting with Pichai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with the Google CEO on a wide range of subjects, particularly leveraging the power of technology to transform the lives of India's farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs. They also spoke on the new work culture emerging during the corona crisis.
PM Modi also discussed the new work culture that is emerging during the the novel coronavirus pandemic in the virtual meeting with Sundar Pichai.
PM Modi took to Twitter saying, "This morning, had an extremely fruitful interaction with @sundarpichai. 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."
During our interaction, @sundarpichai and I spoke about the new work culture that is emerging in the times of COVID-19. We discussed the challenges the global pandemic has brought to areas such as sports. We also talked about the importance of data security and cyber safety."
I was delighted to know more about the efforts of @Google in several sectors, be it in education, learning, @_DigitalIndia, furthering digital payments and more. @sundarpichai," read PM Modi's tweets.
