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, Aashish Aryan
| New Delhi |
Published: July 14, 2020 4:36:09 am
US TECH large Google mentioned on Monday that it has set up a ‘Google for India Digitisation Fund’, via which it’s going to invest $10 billion within the nation over the subsequent 5 to seven years via a mixture of fairness investments, partnerships, operations, infrastructure and ecosystem investments.
The announcement comes shut on the heels of New Delhi signalling curbs on Chinese know-how investments and banning 59 cell apps with hyperlinks to Chinese know-how majors resembling Alibaba – one of many largest Chinese buyers in Indian startups.
Google’s funding plan features a renewed “focus on bringing more high-quality low-cost smartphones to enable Internet access”.
Ahead of the announcement, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video convention with Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and different senior executives of the corporate.
“This morning, 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. During our interaction, Sundar Pichai 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,” Modi tweeted.
Google mentioned its $10-billion fund will concentrate on areas resembling enabling inexpensive entry to the web and to data for each Indian in their very own language; constructing new services in segments like client tech, schooling, well being and agriculture; empowering companies particularly small and medium companies to rework digitally; leveraging know-how and synthetic intelligence for digital literacy, outbreak predictions, and help for rural economies.
In addition, Google’s Vice-President, Payments, and Next Billion Users, Caesar Sengupta, mentioned the corporate will concentrate on bringing extra high-quality low-cost smartphones to allow Internet entry.
“We partnered with many India hardware manufacturers to create high-quality phones running Android within prices to reach every Indian. We will focus on enabling more high-quality low-cost smartphones so more people can access the internet to learn, grow and succeed,” he mentioned.
The firm had earlier rolled out the Android One programme, below which it partnered with Indian OEMs like Lava, Micromax, Karbonn, and so forth, but it surely didn’t take off, significantly on account of cheaper Chinese units and a big second-hand market of higher-end units.
The $10-billion funding by Google is pegged to fill the house that may very well be left vacant by Chinese buyers after the Indian authorities’s clampdown on Chinese firms. Earlier this 12 months, India revised its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) coverage to stop “opportunistic takeovers” of companies hit by the lockdown. The transfer had upset China, which termed it a violation of worldwide commerce ideas.
The Menlo Park-based firm had earlier made investments in a handful of Indian ventures via its enterprise capital arm, as well as to public tasks resembling Google Station for WiFi at railway stations, Internet Saathi for spreading web consciousness in villages, and a synthetic intelligence-based flood forecasting system, amongst others.
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