Google Sues Its Former Bengaluru-Office Employee for Leaking Trade Secrets

Google India has initiated legal proceedings against Harshit Roy, a former employee from their Bengaluru office, for allegedly leaking confidential trade secrets related to Pixel devices. The lawsuit was filed in a Texas federal court and claims that Roy shared detailed specifications of proprietary hardware and software on his social media accounts.

Roy, who worked on next-generation system-on-chip technology for Pixel devices, reportedly began posting confidential information shortly after resigning in February 2024 and moving to the United States for doctoral studies 2. Despite Google's requests to remove the content, Roy continued to share the trade secrets.

Google is seeking unspecified monetary damages and court orders to prevent further dissemination of the confidential information.

Roy is accused of sharing detailed specifications of proprietary hardware and software on his social media accounts. He worked at Google from 2020 to early 2024 and resigned in February 2024 to pursue doctoral studies in the United States.

After resigning, Roy began posting confidential information on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn. Google engaged an external investigator and filed the lawsuit in a Texas federal court, seeking unspecified monetary damages and court orders to prevent further dissemination of the confidential information.

Despite Google's requests to remove the content, Roy continued to share the trade secrets. Google's spokesperson emphasized that such behavior is unacceptable and that the company is committed to safeguarding its proprietary information.

Adani to Supply 61.4 MW Clean Energy to Google's Cloud Operations in India

The Adani Group recently announced a partnership with Google to supply clean energy from its new solar-wind hybrid project in Khavda, Gujarat. This project is part of the world's largest renewable energy park and is set to begin operations in the third quarter of 2025.

Adani will supply 61.4 megawatts (MW) of clean energy from this project to power Google's cloud operations in India.

This collaboration is a part of Google's broader goal to run its global cloud operations entirely on clean energy by 2030. This collaboration will help advance Google’s 24/7 carbon-free energy goal by ensuring cloud services and operations in India are supported by clean energy and thereby contribute to the sustainable growth of Google in India.

This collaboration is a significant step towards both companies' sustainability goals, and it has positively impacted Adani Group's stock prices. Google aims to run its global cloud operations entirely on clean energy by 2030, and this partnership is a key part of that effort.

Besides Adani Group, Google also announced a partnership with CleanMax to source an additional 125.4 MW of clean energy for its offices and cloud regions in India.

With proven capabilities in delivering large scale wind, solar, hybrid and energy storage projects, Adani is well-positioned to provide customised renewable energy solutions to commercial and industrial (C&I) customers to meet their energy requirements and reduce their carbon footprint. Going forward, Adani plans to increase the focus on merchant and C&I segments to help decarbonise industries.

Besides Google, Adani Group has earlier partnered with Microsoft to provide renewable energy for Microsoft's data centers in India. Adani is also working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to supply clean energy for AWS's data centers and infrastructure in India.

Adani Group has also collaborated with TCS to implement energy-efficient solutions and renewable energy projects across various TCS facilities.

Meanwhile, India’s central government is gearing up for its first carbon credit sale, with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) playing a crucial role.

Google launches AI Research Lab in Bengaluru; To Launch WiFi in Gujarat Villages

Google at its 5th edition of ‘Google For India’ event announced the opening of ‘Google Research India’, an artificial intelligence (AI) research lab in Bengaluru, to "tackle big problems", the technology giant announced on Thursday during its fifth edition of Google for India event.

The newly launched lab will be led by Manish Gupta, a SEM (Society for Experimental Mechanics) fellow, and Professor Milind Tambe, who is Director of Harvard Centre for Computation & Society, will serve as director of AI for social good.

According to Google, Professor Tambe will build a research programme around applying AI to tackle big problems in areas like healthcare, agriculture, or education.

All aboard for Google Research India? AI, AI.
🔊Jay Yagnik talks about how the Bangalore-based center aims to deliver world-class research and bring the benefits of AI to everyone. #GoogleForIndia

▶️ https://t.co/2xqmGyuQBL pic.twitter.com/eLH7TMHVcK

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) September 19, 2019

The team at Google Research India lab will focus on two pillars -- 1) advancing fundamental computer science and AI research by building a strong team and partnering with the research community across the country; 2) applying this research to tackle big problems in fields like healthcare, agriculture, and education while also using it to make apps and services used by billions of people, more helpful.

#ICYMI here are the key announcements from the 5th edition of #GoogleForIndia.

▶️ https://t.co/4CI0mJzfuO pic.twitter.com/1pKBDm3WDy

— Google India (@GoogleIndia) September 19, 2019

Fast Public WiFi in Gujarat Villages

Google in its flagship event also announced the partnership with BSNL to bring "fast, reliable and secure public WiFi to villages in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bihar" and with National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) for their Skill India programme to make entry-level jobs easily discoverable online.

Google has also launched an initiative to help millions of Indians who use 2G phones get the information they need, without requiring data or an internet connection. The Vodafone-Idea Phone Line -- supported by the Google Assistant -- enables Vodafone-Idea users to call a single number free of charge (000 800 9191000), at any time, and ask for everything -- from sports scores, traffic conditions and weather forecasts or get help with homework. Starting 19th September, Google has expanded the service to all English- and Hindi-speaking Vodafone-Idea customers across India.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was a guest at the event, said, “Digital India was designed to ensure digital inclusion... I don't have a slightest doubt that Google has a crucial role in helping India achieve its goal of a trillion dollar digital economy.”

Talking about Bolo, a speech-based app that helps children learn to read, that Google launched in March 2019, Sapna Chadha, director of marketing, Southeast Asia & India, said, “Bolo has already helped 800,000 young Indians read stories more than three million times, and speak half a billion words.”

Bolo was already available in Hindi and English and now it has been expanded to five new Indian languages -- Bangla, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. Google has also partnered with publishers like Chota Bheem and Katha Kids to provide more Indic-languages content.

Google India-Tata Trusts to Expand Internet Saathi program to Punjab, Odisha

Google India and Tata Trusts Tuesday said their Internet Saathi initiative, that aims to facilitate digital literacy among women in rural India, will be expanded to villages in Punjab and Odisha.

Launched in July 2015, the Internet Saathi programme has so far, trained 70,000 'Internet Saathis', who have in turn impacted 2.6 crore women in the country.

"The programme now reaches 2.6 lakh villages across 18 states and we are adding two more - Punjab and Odisha. Internet Saathi has contributed towards bridging the digital gender divide in rural India - female to male ratio was 1 in 10 in 2015 and in 2018, it has increased to 4 in 10," Neha Barjatya, Chief Internet Saathi, Google India told PTI.

In Punjab, the program will cover around 5,000 villages, like Paras Rampur, Kotli Than Singh, Burj, Vehra and from Hoshiarpur and Kapurthala districts.

In Odisha, the program has been kicked off from Sindhia in Baleshwar, Parakana in Puri, Bhuinpur in Kendrapara, and will cover over 16,000 villages.

The programme started as a pilot in Rajasthan and has been expanded to states including Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Tripura, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana,Tamil Nadu, Goa, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.

"Internet Saathi program has shown us that with the right opportunities, there is no limit to what women can achieve. These women in rural India are learning about the Internet, not just for their own needs but for their families, kids and their communities," Barjatya said.



She added that some of the women trained under the programme have started their own micro-business like stitching, honeybee farming, and beauty parlours.

"There are also many who are driving awareness for issues like girl child education, menstrual hygiene and more within their communities," she added.

Raman Kalyanakrishnan, Head - Strategy, Tata Trusts said it is imperative that women in rural India are provided with adequate opportunities and knowledge for inclusive growth and societal progress.

"The Trusts have increasingly been using technology in all its programmes across 29 states in India. Punjab and Odisha being a geography of focus for several Tata Trusts' existing initiatives gives us an added advantage in planning and implementing the Internet Saathi programme in these regions," he added.

Barjatya cited a study with Kantar that found a significant number of the Internet Saathis saying they believe they are seen as a source of information in their village -- people are coming to them consistently for answers to help children with schoolwork, to learn new cooking recipes, search for jobs, or to run a business.

The study was based on interviews of over 2,500 people across rural India.

"The study shows that 8 in 10 Saathis and their beneficiaries believe people in their village respect them more. Also, 9 in 10 women beneficiaries believe in a woman's right to express herself, and earn a living for her family," she said. PTI SR DRR

Google's Launchpad Accelerator Program Aims for Mentoring 1K Startups in India in 2019

Tech giant Google is planning to expand its India-focused Launchpad Accelerator programme to mentor 1,000 startups in the country in 2019. To scale the programme in India, Google is said to be currently looking for incubators and accelerator partners.

Although Google’s Launchpad has had supported plenty of startups from India, the company had launched the India-focused Launchpad Accelerator in July this year only. About 30 Indian startups have benefitted from our global Launchpad Accelerator program, helping them collectively raise over $70M and drive revenue increases of almost 500%.

According to Paul Ravindranath G, programme manager of Launchpad Accelerator at Google India, the company will be working with several incubators and accelerators in the counttry to add the launchpad’s mentor network, design sprint methodology, Machine Learning bootcamps, objectives & key results, and scale these proven engagement tools across all partners.

Globally, Google already has 10 partners for Launchpad Accelerator mentorship and these are a part of the ‘Powered by’ programme where Google Launchpad supports accelerators and incubators.

A total of 10 startups were shortlisted from thousands of applicants for the inaugural edition of the three-month accelerator programme in India.

The startups underwent two weeks of training offering them mentorship, opening up Google’s network, experts and technologies.

To recall, in September two Indian startups - m.Paani and Aye Finance have been shortlisted in 10 companies selected globally by Google for its flagship development acceleration programme "Launchpad Studio".

Source - Economic Times

Google Launches Machine Learning Crash Course Jam Series in India

The demand for a new skill like Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing, especially in regard to data scientists, for whom the demand is projected to exceed supply by more than 50% by 2018.

If you are in India want to equip yourself with the skill of artificial intelligence and machine learning then your plight has been heard by none other than tech giant Google as now you can access practical -- and free -- training from Google experts.

Google has brought the its Machine Learning Crash Course (MLCC) Study Jam series program to India, which will be a in-person sessions. The course, according to Google, will improve developers' "technical proficiency in machine learning, enabling them to apply cutting-edge techniques to help take on a range of practical challenges”.

MLCC is Google’s flagship machine learning course, initially created for Google engineers. This course was taken up by more than 18,000 Googlers, and was recently made publicly available when the company introduced "Learn with Google AI", in March this year, to enable people to understand and use AI in solving complex as well as real-world problems, develop skills and learn about a variety of concepts.

Also Read - Udacity In India Launches Online Course For Flying Cars and Drone Tech

Announcing the launch of the initiative in India, the Director of Public Policy at Google India, Chetan Krishnaswamy, said that there’s a ‘clear and present need for trained and technically-equipped developers’ to deal with the various AI-related projects, what with companies of all sizes starting to incorporate AI in their products and services.

Official Google India Blog:The Machine Learning Crash Course (MLCC) Study Jam series comes to India https://t.co/leIeTfE0Pq via @google

— Chetan Krishnaswamy (@Chetankrishna) July 9, 2018

"From helping farmers detect the onset of crop infections to enabling doctors diagnose the occurrence of diabetic blindness among millions, Artificial Intelligence is helping tackle challenges inventively across a range of sectors", he added.

MLCC is intended for those who wish to learn about ML from a practical, applied perspective that will enable them to gain a deeper understanding of the power of TensorFlow and incorporate best practices into their everyday projects. This course is ideally suited to developers with basic machine learning knowledge, who are keen to gain experience in ML and TensorFlow. TensorFlow is a computational framework for building machine learning models.

According to Google, the AI ecosystem in India is in nascent stage though developing rapidly. With companies of all sizes adopting AI in their solutions, there is a clear and present need for trained and technically-equipped developers to drive these AI-related challenges and projects, and to facilitate this Google has brought this initiative to the country.

Notably, this program is an outcome of agreement signed between Google and NITI Aayog, Indian govt.'s policy think tank, in May, to jointly work towards building the AI ecosystem in India.

To Apply for MLCC event visit - https://events.withgoogle.com/mlcc-india-2018

American research and advisory firm Gartner Inc has forecast the creation of 2.3 million jobs in AI, ML, and Deep Learning (DL) within three years [Read Here].

Besides., in October 2017, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-H) has launched a professional course on ‘Foundations for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning'.

In November, an Intel report predicted that 70% of Indian organizations will deploy artificial intelligence enabled solutions by end of 2019, which in other words also predicted that India will create more jobs for artificial intelligence and robotics professionals.

Via - Official Google India Blog

[Top Image - IBTimes.co.in]

Google Joins Hands with NITI Aayog to Strengthen AI, Machine Learning Ecosystem in India

Indian government's policy think tank NITI Aayog, on Monday announced that it has joined hands with tech giant Google to stimulate growth in India's nascent artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning ecosystem by working together on several initiatives in the two areas.

NITI Aayog it will be working with Google to develop AI-based solutions aimed at improving the overall economic productivity of the nation.

“Niti’s partnership with Google will unlock massive training initiatives, support start-ups and encourage AI research through PhD scholarships, all of which contributes to the larger idea of a technologically-empowered New India,” said Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer, Niti Aayog.

Under the joint programme, Google will train and incubate Indian AI startups in an accelerator programme, which is yet to announced. These startups will be mentored and coached by Google and its affiliates to enable them to better leverage AI in their respective business models.

Additionally, Google will also bring its online training courses on AI to students in India, graduates and engineers to numerous cities across India in the form of study groups and developer-run courses.

“AI is going to disrupt the way business is done and India, in particular, is uniquely poised in utilising AI to innovate for social and inclusive good. India is embracing future technologies such as machine learning and AI to augment its capacity in healthcare, improve outcomes in education, develop innovative governance systems for our citizens and improve overall economic productivity of the nation,” added the CEO of Niti Aayog.

It may recalled that, in March, India's AI Task Force, set up by the ministry of commerce and industry last year , has recommended a Rs 1,200-crore corpus for five years under the Union Budget to push the National Artificial Intelligence Mission (NAIM).

Moreover, this year, while announcing the budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that Niti Aayog will setup a national programme to conduct research and development in frontier technologies such as AI.

In February, India’s IT ministry has also constituted four committees to thoroughly study on various aspects of Artificial Intelligence for citizen use. Moreover, India has also joined hands with Japan to launch robotics and artificial intelligence in the defense segment. According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, union minister of electronics and IT, these committees would be headed by IIT director and industry experts from bodies such as Nasscom. He also said that the ministry will coordinate with Niti Aayog on this.

In the same month, PM Modi launched India's first AI research centre for social good followed by announcement made by tech giant Adobe to establish an AI Lab in Hyderabad.

Via - Economic Times | Top Image - TurkeyTelegraph.com

Google Joins Hands with NITI Aayog to Strengthen AI, Machine Learning Ecosystem in India

Indian government's policy think tank NITI Aayog, on Monday announced that it has joined hands with tech giant Google to stimulate growth in India's nascent artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning ecosystem by working together on several initiatives in the two areas.

NITI Aayog it will be working with Google to develop AI-based solutions aimed at improving the overall economic productivity of the nation.

“Niti’s partnership with Google will unlock massive training initiatives, support start-ups and encourage AI research through PhD scholarships, all of which contributes to the larger idea of a technologically-empowered New India,” said Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer, Niti Aayog.

Under the joint programme, Google will train and incubate Indian AI startups in an accelerator programme, which is yet to announced. These startups will be mentored and coached by Google and its affiliates to enable them to better leverage AI in their respective business models.

Additionally, Google will also bring its online training courses on AI to students in India, graduates and engineers to numerous cities across India in the form of study groups and developer-run courses.

“AI is going to disrupt the way business is done and India, in particular, is uniquely poised in utilising AI to innovate for social and inclusive good. India is embracing future technologies such as machine learning and AI to augment its capacity in healthcare, improve outcomes in education, develop innovative governance systems for our citizens and improve overall economic productivity of the nation,” added the CEO of Niti Aayog.

It may recalled that, in March, India's AI Task Force, set up by the ministry of commerce and industry last year , has recommended a Rs 1,200-crore corpus for five years under the Union Budget to push the National Artificial Intelligence Mission (NAIM).

Moreover, this year, while announcing the budget, finance minister Arun Jaitley had said that Niti Aayog will setup a national programme to conduct research and development in frontier technologies such as AI.

In February, India’s IT ministry has also constituted four committees to thoroughly study on various aspects of Artificial Intelligence for citizen use. Moreover, India has also joined hands with Japan to launch robotics and artificial intelligence in the defense segment. According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, union minister of electronics and IT, these committees would be headed by IIT director and industry experts from bodies such as Nasscom. He also said that the ministry will coordinate with Niti Aayog on this.

In the same month, PM Modi launched India's first AI research centre for social good followed by announcement made by tech giant Adobe to establish an AI Lab in Hyderabad.

Via - Economic Times | Top Image - TurkeyTelegraph.com

India Imposes $21.1 Mn Fine on Google For Biased Search Results

India's Competition Commission has imposed a fine of Rs 136 crore (~$21.1 million) on internet giant Google for unfair business practices in the Indian market for online search, reported Times of India.

After a detailed probe on the complaints filed back in 2012, Competition Commission of India (CCI) found that Google is abusing its dominant position in the local search market for online general web search and web search advertising services. CCI, through a majority order, said the penalty is being imposed on Google for "infringing anti-trust conduct".

“Google was leveraging its dominance in the market for online general web search, to strengthen its position in the market for online syndicate search services. The competitors were denied access to the online search syndication services market due to such a conduct, writes the CCI in a press release.

On the CCI ruling, a Google spokesperson said the company is "reviewing the narrow concerns identified by the Commission and will assess our next steps".

The CCI said it has given thoughtful consideration on the submissions made by Google on issue of penalty and found it appropriate to impose a fine.

The ruling has come on complaints filed in 2012 by Matrimony.com, an Indian matchmaking website, and Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS) against Google LLC, Google India Pvt Ltd and Google Ireland Ltd.

The penalty amount of Rs 135.86 crore was calculated based on Google’s revenue from its operations in India only, and equates to around 5% of its turnover in the market.

Interestingly, out of four members of CCI committee, who ruled this fine imposement orders on Google, two members have showed disagreement saying that they don't find Google in violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act. The section 4 pertains to abuse of dominant position.

Notably, this is one of the rare cases globally where Google has been penalised for unfair business ways, even though it has been under probe in several countries.

To recall, in June 2017, European Union’s Competition Commission had slapped Google with a record breaking $2.7 billion antitrust fine relating to the Google Shopping search comparison service and manipulating search results.

In India, in one more case -- back in 2009 -- Indian politician and Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat demanded to Ban “Google India” and arrest of the chief of Google India over showing the advertisements of prenatal gender determination or preconception sex selection and thus violating laws of India under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act.

Google To Launch UPI Based Payment App 'Tez' in India Next Week

With increase in it focus on India, Google is entering to localized digital payment service in India. The search giant is all set to launch a Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital payment service called "Tez" as early as next week. The media report also suggest the launch date to be 18 September.

The report further claims that Google ‘Tez’ will offer a comprehensive set of payment options beyond existing products like Google Wallet or Android Pay. Tez, for one thing, will include support for Unified Payments Interface (UPI) — a payment system backed by the government -- and other consumer payment services including Paytm and MobiKwik. Apparently it will be a dedicated app when it arrives.

Other big player to join India's growing digital payment market is Facebook-owned WhatsApp. Other mobile messaging platforms like WeChat and Hike Messenger already support UPI-based payment services. While, India's e-commerce giant Flipkart's owned Phonepe has just recently surpassed most number of UPI transactions in the country so much so that it overtakes Indian government's own UPI-based app BHIM in August.

Notably -- with Tez app -- Google is making a big push into payments outside of the U.S. and probably for the first time outside its home country.

Google in increasingly focusing on India's digital payment market because -- it has a strong consumer presence in India, India's huge growth and potential in same.

According to media reports, while WhatsApp is already in talks with the NPCI and a few banks to facilitate financial transactions via UPI Google had already filed (on 27 June 2017) an application for wordmark 'Tez' Controller General of Patents, Designs, and Trade Marks, a department of India’s commerce and industry ministry

As per RBI data, India saw nearly a billion digital transactions in July (859.2 million to be precise). Besides, the internet user base, anywhere between 370 and 450 million, is consistently growing. Not to forget, India is also the second largest smartphone market in the world. And most importantly, India’s digital payments industry is expected to be worth $500 billion by 2020, as per a report by GSMA and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Moreover, Amazon too is planning to launch digital wallet in India and has even gotten a license for same.

Google Launches 'Solve for India' Program To Inspire Startups and Entrepreneurs

Aiming to support and mentor new initiatives in the field of technology, Google on Friday announced its "Solve for India" program to inspire the new wave of entrepreneurs and startups in emerging cities like Pune, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Nashik, Madurai, Kanpur and Chennai.

Through this initiative, Google aims to expand and energize the startup ecosystem in these 11 tier II cities and inspire the budding entrepreneurs to solve for India and its underserved user needs, says the company.

The internet today provides an opportunity to everyone to pursue their passion and create solutions to solve for the real problems of India.

The program will provide a platform for developers and entrepreneurs in tier II cities to hear from experts and learn about the latest Google technologies and get access to direct mentoring and support from Google.

Entrepreneurs will get an opportunity to learn directly from Google engineers who will share product usage insights, how to develop mobile first solutions with strong offline and language capabilities and help them build solutions across areas like agri-tech, healthcare, transportation, education, sanitation and more.

"Majority of India's Internet users are Indian language users and over 80 percent of them access the Internet from their mobile phones. However, the current Indian startup ecosystem is building products for English speaking audience and caters only to 15 percent of the population," said Karthik Padmanabhan, Program Manager Lead for Google India.

"Through this initiative we want to bring the best of Google under one program and join forces with them to help create solutions that serve the needs of a billion Indians," he added.

Developers and entrepreneurs will gain from a variety of Google's programs starting with the Google Launchpad mentoring program which will help them to build, scale and accelerate product ideas into category leaders.

Launchpad includes a six-month mentorship program covering all aspects of product design, business models, technology support to build for scale and go to market strategies along with USD 50,000 equity free investments. For startups looking to build scalable solutions, Google will provide over USD 20,000 of cloud credits.

Developers can also look forward to build on their skills and learn from experts on latest in Android, Firebase, Machine learning, Cloud API s, progressive web apps and Indian language translation solutions.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Google Launches Its Food-Delivery and Home Services App in India; Partners with Bigbasket, Grofers, UrbanClap

Google has launched a new food delivery and home services aggregator the India market. Called Areo, the app allows users to order food delivery and home services from their smartphones.

Areo lets users search for local restaurants and businesses like electricians, plumbers, and painters, and schedule their deliveries or appointments through the app. The app is available as a free download on the Google Play store and is currently operational in Bengaluru and Mumbai only, and for Android devices. The app support will be eventually rolled out to other cities of the country in the upcoming days.

Essentially, Areo is aggregator kind of app with all the food delivery and home services apps under one roof.

Notably, Areo has signed up few related startups like UrbanClap and Zimmber for home services and Freshmenu, Box8 & Faasos for food ordering.

Furthermore, Google Areo also help users to shop from several other grocery apps under one single platform. Be it Grofers or BigBasket, the users will be able to purchase anything and everything from these applications under one roof, add on a single cart and order. All this reduces the burden of downloading dozen of apps on your phone.

Notably, missing from the partners list however are prominent players like Zomato and Swiggy in food delivery and Amazon-backed Housejoy in home services.

A Google spokesperson said they are currently not charging partners for this service but they are yet to respond to our queries on how these partners were selected or do they plan to charge these partners in the future.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Google Aims To Bring India's 51 Million SMBs Online With Its New Digital Unlocked Program

Yesterday saw Google's Indian origin global chief executive officer Sundar Pichai unveiling Google's Digital Unlocked program, a program aimed at getting all of India's 51 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) online.

According to Pichai, the Indian subcontinent boosts of some 51 million SMBs today that are contributing a good 37% to India’s GDP. Unfortunately, out of these, only 32% have a presence online or are truly being able to take advantage of the power of the digital world for the betterment of their businesses. It is this balance 68% of the businesses that Google India aims to digitally empower by the end of year 2017.

While emphasising on the various benefits of going digital, Pichai also added that the World Wide Web holds as much as importance for an established local merchant, as it is does for a high-flying startup. Google's new initiatives for the SMBs include a training program, tools to build their websites, and a support service to help such businesses get online.

The Digital Unlocked program is a free training program that aims to teach SMBs the basic digital skills required to get online and how they can start using the Internet to grow their business. While the online training under the program consists of 90 self-paced training video tutorials, created by the Indian School of Business, FICCI and Google itself, the offline training comprises of an eight-hour classroom training programme created in partnership with FICCI. By 2020, Google plans to successfully conduct as much as 5,000 such workshops in 40 Indian cities.

The 90 training video tutorials have been curated keeping in mind India's business environment and will be available to SMBs absolutely free of charge. The tutorials cover topics right from how to build a web presence to how to drive online growth of their businesses to reach their customers over mobile and video.

"The internet and digital technology will be an engine of growth for the Indian economy. Today, anyone can become an entrepreneur, a developer, or a creator, but it is important that they have the right tools and skills to digitize. We believe it is important for us to invest in training and equipping these individuals and small businesses to accelerate their journey of growth," said Pichai at the Google event in New Delhi on Wednesday.

[caption id="attachment_112749" align="alignnone" width="700"] Sundar Pichai with Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for law & justice, electronics & information technology at a Google event in New Delhi on Wednesday.[/caption]

The Wednesday Google event also saw the tech giant announcing a free tool called ‘My Business Website’, aimed at helping SMBs in creating a free, mobile optimised website. To be launched later this year, the new feature will provide the SMBs with simple, templated, editable and easily accessible websites from their data and photos on Google Maps. It will be made available in 9 Indic languages.

In addition to the Digital Unlocked training program and My Business Website tool, Google also launched a free mobile app called Primer, aimed at teaching digital marketing skills to SMBs. The app, which can also work in its offline mode, is currently only available in English and Hindi, but its Marathi, Tamil and Telugu versions are expected to be launched very soon.

A recent joint research study conducted by Google and KPMG titled Impact of internet and digitization on SMBs in India had revealed that as much as 52% of the digital businesses in India cater to customers outside their base city and employ five times more people than offline businesses, but at the same time the profits of digitally aware and engaged SMBs grow twice as fast compared to offline SMBs. The research also pointed that a greater uptake of the digital world by the Indian SMBs can help in increasing their contribution to India’s GDP by 10 percentage points, taking it up to 46-48% by the year 2020 from the current 37%.

Google's Wednesday announcements are in resonance with the tech giant's continuous efforts to support the Indian government's Digital India initiative. In 2016, Google had launched Google My Business, a program that aims at helping SMBs get an online presence on Google Search and Google Maps, without having to invest money in a website or domain.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who is currently in India on a work and personal visit, visited his alma mater IIT-Kharagpur today. The Indian-origin Google CEO discussed his life on campus in an event titled ‘A journey back to the past to inspire the future,' which was streamed live by Google on YouTube.

Introducing 'Google Station', A Free High-Speed Wi-Fi Service Across The Globe

Exactly a year after Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that the company will provide high-speed Wi-Fi service to 400 train stations across India, Google today announced 'Google Station' -- a free and fast Wi-Fi service across the world.

At its Google for India event in New Delhi today, the company launched a host of products especially for India including Google station under which it plans to bring wifi facilities to malls, bus stops, city centers, and cafes all around the world through which millions more people will be able to learn, play, chat, work, and find the information they need.

Interested partners, including venues, organizations and network operators, can sign up on this page to learn more.

Google Station will give partners an easy set of tools to roll-out Wi-Fi hotspots in public places. Google Station will provide software and guidance on hardware to turn fiber connections into fast, reliable and safe Wi-Fi zones. Users will get a fast Wi-Fi experience with a simple and unified login, while making it much easier for venues to manage their networks.

"After connecting 32 cities and 50 railway stations and 3.5 million railwire wifi users, we are bringing in Google station. We don't want to stop at wi-fi in railway stations. We want to give fast wifi for everyone," said Caeser Sengupta, vice-president of product management and oversees product strategy for Google.

Sengupta who is also VP of Google's Next Billion Plan said the company is opening the platform to anyone and everyone who has a good internet connection.

The inspiration for Google Station came from the success of Google's partnership with RailTel and Indian Railways to provide free Wi-Fi services at railway stations in India. Currently, Google claims, the service is live in 52 stations and over 3.5 million users use it every month. Google also reckons that 15,000 Indians access the internet for the first time using the free Wi-Fi service every day.

Google is keen to help the next billion people experience the Web as more internet users means more people accessing the Google’s products and services.

Google Wants To Help Fix India's Unusual Problem - 'Shortage of Women'

India's Population Census of the year 2011 revealed that the population ratio in the country is 940 females per 1000 of males. Though the Sex Ratio 2011 did show an upward trend from the census 2001 data of just 933 females per 1000 males, the numbers are still far away from being equal. The governments over the years have tried their best to better the skewed up sex ratio but haven't been able to achieve their goal yet. And hence, now they have decided to take the help of global tech giants in solving the problem faster.

One of the main reasons for the great gender gap in the country, is the society's preference for male child over female child. According to the United Nations, India has one of the largest gender imbalances in the world with the men outnumbering the women by a whopping 43 million.

While the Indian law has banned abortions based on the sex of a child, and has even made it illegal for the doctors to make use an ultrasound to determine the sex of a foetus, the situation hasn't changed much.

Understanding the importance that such an important issue holds for a developing country like India, the country's Health Ministry had asked for commitment from some of the biggest global tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to restrict the promotion/advertisements of tests that encourage testing the gender of an unborn child. All the aforementioned giants have pledged their support to India's Health Ministry on the matter and have committed to abstain from promoting tasteless sex determination tests.

According to a report by CNNMoney, tech giant Google has decided to disable certain terms from appearing as autocomplete predictions and display a warning message on relevant searches to inform users of the unlawful nature of this subject in the country.

While there is no assurance on how well are these digital measures going to turn out, it is good to know that the government is making some efforts at least. Last couple of years has seen Indian courts directing search companies to completely ban all the search results on sex selection on their platforms, not just the ads.

According to a number of researches, gender imbalance in a country can lead to an alarming increase in crime, sexual assaults and overall violence against women in the country. Hence, India is rigorously trying to uproot this social evil from its land as soon as possible.

Ironically, in year 2009 there were the controversy that spilled up due to the fact that Google India was showing the adverts of prenatal gender determination or preconception sex selection and thus violating laws of India under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act. And, in that year, the controversy also led to demand of Banning Google in India and arrest of the then chief of Google India. Read more about this 2009 news here

Google Wants To Help Fix India's Unusual Problem - 'Shortage of Women'

India's Population Census of the year 2011 revealed that the population ratio in the country is 940 females per 1000 of males. Though the Sex Ratio 2011 did show an upward trend from the census 2001 data of just 933 females per 1000 males, the numbers are still far away from being equal. The governments over the years have tried their best to better the skewed up sex ratio but haven't been able to achieve their goal yet. And hence, now they have decided to take the help of global tech giants in solving the problem faster.

One of the main reasons for the great gender gap in the country, is the society's preference for male child over female child. According to the United Nations, India has one of the largest gender imbalances in the world with the men outnumbering the women by a whopping 43 million.

While the Indian law has banned abortions based on the sex of a child, and has even made it illegal for the doctors to make use an ultrasound to determine the sex of a foetus, the situation hasn't changed much.

Understanding the importance that such an important issue holds for a developing country like India, the country's Health Ministry had asked for commitment from some of the biggest global tech giants such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to restrict the promotion/advertisements of tests that encourage testing the gender of an unborn child. All the aforementioned giants have pledged their support to India's Health Ministry on the matter and have committed to abstain from promoting tasteless sex determination tests.

According to a report by CNNMoney, tech giant Google has decided to disable certain terms from appearing as autocomplete predictions and display a warning message on relevant searches to inform users of the unlawful nature of this subject in the country.

While there is no assurance on how well are these digital measures going to turn out, it is good to know that the government is making some efforts at least. Last couple of years has seen Indian courts directing search companies to completely ban all the search results on sex selection on their platforms, not just the ads.

According to a number of researches, gender imbalance in a country can lead to an alarming increase in crime, sexual assaults and overall violence against women in the country. Hence, India is rigorously trying to uproot this social evil from its land as soon as possible.

Ironically, in year 2009 there were the controversy that spilled up due to the fact that Google India was showing the adverts of prenatal gender determination or preconception sex selection and thus violating laws of India under the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act. And, in that year, the controversy also led to demand of Banning Google in India and arrest of the then chief of Google India. Read more about this 2009 news here

Google Aims To Teach Indians How To Save Money Through 'Bharat Saves'

Tech giant Google seemed to have set its eyes on India. After joining hands with the Indian railways for helping in connecting millions of Indian train travellers to the world wide web through its Wi-Fi project, Google is now gearing to help Indians save some money. It plans to do the same by launching a brand new website called Bharat Saves.

The Bharat Saves website will enlighten the Indian population on how they can save their hard earned money by providing them financial planning knowledge and easy but effective finance tips.

According to the sources, Google has already got in touch with the Modi government regarding the project, and the government has apparently accepted the proposal but has not given it its go ahead yet.

Reportedly, tech giant plans to make the Bharat Saves website a part of the government's much-ambitious financial inclusion scheme Jan Dhan Yojana, which was launched by the Indian Prime Minister himself in the year 2014. Since its launch, the scheme has been successful in opening new bank accounts for an impressive 24 crore Indians.

Google will reportedly launch Bharat Saves both in the form of a website and an application. A user will be able to access the service by logging in into either of the two platforms. The next stop involves going through the given financial literacy modules and taking a financial literacy test authenticated by the Indian government. Once this is done, the user is taken to a new page where they would be able to see, compare and even purchase financial plans.

Recent years have seen a very unique relationship building between the technology world and the financial world. And, thankfully, the goodies have also managed to reach the Indian population. One of the most famous examples of this relationship that is gripping the lives of millennials in India is PayTM, an app that allows people to make payments and money transfer right through their mobile phones. In fact, the West is currently working on making Cardless ATMs a reality, wherein people will be able to access their ATMs right through their mobile phones.

[Top Image - Shutterstock]

Google Introduces Flood Alerts For India

In the wake of recent Chennai flood that saw nearly 2 million people having devastating effects including killing of over 500 people Google has introduced flood alerts to the range of information that's available through Google Public Alerts in India.

Google will use data provided by the Central Water Commission (CWC) to allow users to track floods and check river level information for more than 170 areas observed by the agency across India. These alerts are available on Google web search, Google Now cards in the Google app, Google Maps, and on the Public Alerts homepage, both on computer and mobile devices.

Clicking on the alert will show information with details about the hazard, including a map and expected timeline, as well as tips on how to stay safe.



Google says its constantly working to improve its Crisis Response tools to make critical information more accessible around natural disasters.

Google has also tied-up with India Meteorological Department for cyclone alerts.

Google Introduces Flood Alerts For India

In the wake of recent Chennai flood that saw nearly 2 million people having devastating effects including killing of over 500 people Google has introduced flood alerts to the range of information that's available through Google Public Alerts in India.

Google will use data provided by the Central Water Commission (CWC) to allow users to track floods and check river level information for more than 170 areas observed by the agency across India. These alerts are available on Google web search, Google Now cards in the Google app, Google Maps, and on the Public Alerts homepage, both on computer and mobile devices.

Clicking on the alert will show information with details about the hazard, including a map and expected timeline, as well as tips on how to stay safe.



Google says its constantly working to improve its Crisis Response tools to make critical information more accessible around natural disasters.

Google has also tied-up with India Meteorological Department for cyclone alerts.

Google To Offer 1,000 Indian Startups Free Cloud Credits

Search giant Google has announced two new initiatives for the enterprises and startups in India. Under the new initiatives, Google will now cover the fees of Google Apps for any business locked into an enterprise agreement (EA) with another provider until its contract runs out. Once the current EA is up, Google will offer a contract with no additional traps. As per estimates, this will help most businesses with basic EAs and no dependencies to potentially unlock savings of up to 70 percent by switching to Google Apps for Work.

On the startup front, Google said it would offer USD 20,000 (about Rs 13,23,900) each in free credits for 'Google Cloud Services' to 1,000 startups in India over the next one year. Google will also offer free consultation and training to these startups. The 1000 startups will need to meet certain criteria with regards to funding, usage, etc to be eligible for the credit.

The criteria includes that the startup should not have raised funding of more than $5 million, less than $500,000 in annual revenue and not received previous cloud platforms credits.

Speaking at the launch of these initiatives, Amit Singh, President, Google For Work, said "With the second largest developer population in the world, India is poised to be home to next generation of global software firms. We’re committed to partner these next-gen companies and enterprises as a trusted provider of affordable, collaborative and easy to use productivity and cloud computing tools to help them succeed. Over the last few years, we have gained tremendous momentum in helping companies go Google in India and we’re confident that with these new initiatives, we will further bring down the barriers for companies to make the switch to Google Apps."

These new initiatives by Google for growing startup community of India will help the country's startups who are held back by a lack of computing to power, to build, deploy and scale the next big innovation on the web respectively.

On the security aspect, Google says that it offers full encryption to its business customers, where the encryption keys are held by the business.

Google's suite of business apps include Gmail, Hangouts, Docs for business as well as analytics app and Google Vault, which lets business archive, search their email.