Google announced that it will invest $10 billion in India over the next five to seven years, the search giant’s CEO Sundar Pichai said, according to media reports. Google said that it will use this investment to buy stakes in large Indian companies as well as niche digital service providers.
According to Google’s blog post, the company said, “Today, to help unlock this opportunity, we are deepening our commitment to India’s next chapter as a digital economy. Google will invest INR 75,000 crores (approximately US$10 billion) to advance India’s digitisation over the coming 5-7 years, with a new Google for India Digitisation Fund. We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, operations, infrastructure and ecosystem investments.”
Sundar Pichai said that as a company Google wants to commit itself to India and sees a great opportunity for Digital India and is excited by it.
The India Digitisation Fund will invest with both large as well as small companies and also invest in infrastructure such as building data centers etc.
“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,” PM Modi tweeted on the development.
On its move to support education in the country, Google said that it has entered into a new partnership with the CBSE, Skill Education and Training. By the end of 2020, Google has plans to enable over 1 million teachers in 22,000 schools across India to deliver blended learning that combines the classroom approach with online learning, using free tools like G Suite for Education, Google Classroom, YouTube and more.
Adding to this, Google announced a new grant of $1M USD to Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF) from Google.org, Google’s philanthropic arm, as part of the Global Distance Learning Fund. Using these funds, KEF will work with the Central Square Foundation and TeacherApp to train 700,000 teachers to deliver virtual education for vulnerable students so that they can continue learning at home. Where families don’t have access to the internet or a smartphone, other channels including TV and radio will be used to reach these children.
In order to back small businesses in India, Google has launched the Grow with Google Small Business hub in India: a single destination where businesses can access digital tools to maintain business continuity, find resources like quick help videos, and learn digital skills–in both English and in Hindi. For this, Google entered a partnership with Prasar Bharati to launch an edutainment series across its network, designed to help business owners adapt to the evolving challenges of COVID-19 with online tools, learn from other companies, and plan for the long-term future.
HrNxt.com Newsdesk has researchers and writers with an excellent domain knowledge about the talent ecosystem, and the business environment. The team keeps a tab on the latest happenings in the ecosystem to bring most relevant news and insights for our readers. You can connect with our newsdesk at newsdesk@hrnxt.com.