Narayana Murthy, Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella are Top Tech Inspiration for Indian Techies

In an exclusive survey conducted by IT learning platform TechGig, about 64% Indian IT professionals voted for NR Narayana Murthy as the game changer for desi technology sector. Also, Google’s Sundar Pichai topped the list of India-born technology leaders whom most Indians are proud of. He was followed by Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and NIO’s CEO Padmasree Warrior at second and third position, respectively.

In the last 71 years, India has relentlessly worked to become a top player in various spheres, and it has been able to achieve that feat in Technology sector undoubtedly. Today, IT is one of the biggest contributors to India’s GDP, economy and overall success story. To understand major milestones in India’s growth story, TechGig conducted an exclusive survey on IT professionals and the findings revealed the major milestones, as perceived by the Indian techies. Here are the chief outcomes:

Narayana Murthy - The game changer in IT sector

Indian IT sector has been benefitted by contributions of many stalwarts but clearly, Infosys co-founder NR Narayana Murthy remains a hot favourite among the tech professionals. The surveyed professionals were asked to enlist the name of an Indian who created the biggest impact in Indian IT industry, and Narayana Murthy topped the charts among many present and past IT leaders. He served Infosys for around 21 years but his imprint on the mind of Indian techies seems everlasting.

Murthy was followed by Wipro’s Azim Premji and Tata’s N Chandrasekaran on the second and third positions, respectively.

Technology has made jobs more competitive

TechGig’s survey also revealed that technological advancement in last 71 years has given an unprecedented boost to the Indian job market. Around 60% of surveyed professionals support the fact that adoption of technology has been an enabler of jobs, rather than a destroyer. These techies also enlisted that the continuous progression and development on technological front has led to an increase in demand for job profiles like web developer, data engineer, data analyst in recent times.

About 95% of survey respondents said that advancement of technology has made jobs more competitive. About 66% of Indian employees in Tech domain feel that their work is as competitive as jobs abroad. Also, 66% of professionals feel that Indian companies are no longer just the outsourcing hub, possibly because most of them are focussing on R&D to differentiate their offerings from the rest.

“Modern India has a strong focus on science and technology. Today everything in the corporate world is revolving around Big Data, AI, IoT, mapping the future of IT industry, which indeed is fabulous. According to recent trends IT industry will witness a sharp upsurge in off-shore demand. Also, the Indian IT sector will gain momentum, creating a plethora of job opportunities for IT people and future ahead,” said Ramathreya Krishnamurthi – Business Head, TimesJobs & TechGig.

Sundar Pichai, tops the list of India-born leaders

Talented Indians have made breakthroughs, pushed boundaries and held positions of power in the world of technology. According to TechGig survey Google CEO, Sundar Pichai tops the list of India-born technology leaders of whom Indians are proud of, followed by Satya Nadella and Padmasree Warrior at second and third position respectively.

Complete survey findings are available at https://bit.ly/2wKZSLa

TechGig is a culmination of everything related to technology, a platform exclusively for IT professionals to synergize, share, exchange ideas, facts and information as well as showcase their work and express their views on the vast repertoire that the IT industry encompasses. Garnering cutting-edge insights, jobs, reviews and news, as well as providing a platform for connecting with colleagues and peers are the mainstay of TechGig.

[The above content is published unedited via Business Wire India feed]

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Made Nearly $200 Mn In Compensation Last year

Creating an example for good work yields good results, Tech giant Google's Indian origin CEO Sundar Pichai made a whopping $199.7 million in compensation for the year 2016, which is almost double the amount of what he made in 2015. According to a regulatory filing by Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., Pichai's 2016 compensation consisted of a base pay of $650,000 and a stock award for $198.7 million. The 273,328 Class C shares that vest quarterly through 2019 if Pichai remains on the job made a huge chunk of the Indian-origin executive's compensation.

Pichai assumed the position of chief executive of Google after the creation of Alphabet, its parent company. He took over the reins from Larry Page who became chief executive of Alphabet. The stock award was granted to Pichai about six months after the tech business announced it would reorganize into holding company Alphabet.

Pichai joined Google in the year 2004, initially as a leading product management on a number of Google's client software products, like Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Drive. He slowly, slowly climbed the ladder and became the chief executive of the company.

Prior to Google, Pichai has worked in engineering and product management department at Applied Materials and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Pichai's envious paycheck is well deserved as under Pichai's leadership, not only did Google witness a 17.8 per cent jump in core ads business last year but it also ended up significantly boosting its revenue in cloud and hardware, which has been a long-sought goal of the tech giant. Its worth mentioning that Google’s ‘other revenues’ category, which includes cloud services and hardware, hit the $3.1 billion mark in the recent quarter, churning about 50 per cent gain the quarter a year before. Furthermore, last year, the company officially made its smartphone debut with its first set of self-branded smartphones called Pixel and Pixel XL.

According to recent report by eMarketer, Google under Pichai will continue its good run even in this year and dominate the US digital ad revenue with a 40.7 per cent share, surpassing that of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook’s share in the market. In addition to the ad revenue, the tech giant's display business is also estimated to reach to $5.24 billion this year. According to tech and business experts, the Mountain View, California-based company's dominance in search coming from consumers who are making use of their smartphones to look up for information made a large chunk of the tech giant's projected success this year.

The 44-year-old IIT educated, Chennai raised executive has also kept a close eye on his birth country and its progress. In fact, he has time and again revealed about his plans to further accelerate the Indian government's push towards digital economy. Earlier this year, Pichai visited India to unveil Google's Digital Unlocked program, a program aimed at getting all of India's 51 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) online.

[Image Credit: Justin Sullivan | Getty Images]

Google CEO Sundar Pichai Made Nearly $200 Mn In Compensation Last year

Creating an example for good work yields good results, Tech giant Google's Indian origin CEO Sundar Pichai made a whopping $199.7 million in compensation for the year 2016, which is almost double the amount of what he made in 2015. According to a regulatory filing by Google's parent company Alphabet Inc., Pichai's 2016 compensation consisted of a base pay of $650,000 and a stock award for $198.7 million. The 273,328 Class C shares that vest quarterly through 2019 if Pichai remains on the job made a huge chunk of the Indian-origin executive's compensation.

Pichai assumed the position of chief executive of Google after the creation of Alphabet, its parent company. He took over the reins from Larry Page who became chief executive of Alphabet. The stock award was granted to Pichai about six months after the tech business announced it would reorganize into holding company Alphabet.

Pichai joined Google in the year 2004, initially as a leading product management on a number of Google's client software products, like Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Drive. He slowly, slowly climbed the ladder and became the chief executive of the company.

Prior to Google, Pichai has worked in engineering and product management department at Applied Materials and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Pichai's envious paycheck is well deserved as under Pichai's leadership, not only did Google witness a 17.8 per cent jump in core ads business last year but it also ended up significantly boosting its revenue in cloud and hardware, which has been a long-sought goal of the tech giant. Its worth mentioning that Google’s ‘other revenues’ category, which includes cloud services and hardware, hit the $3.1 billion mark in the recent quarter, churning about 50 per cent gain the quarter a year before. Furthermore, last year, the company officially made its smartphone debut with its first set of self-branded smartphones called Pixel and Pixel XL.

According to recent report by eMarketer, Google under Pichai will continue its good run even in this year and dominate the US digital ad revenue with a 40.7 per cent share, surpassing that of Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook’s share in the market. In addition to the ad revenue, the tech giant's display business is also estimated to reach to $5.24 billion this year. According to tech and business experts, the Mountain View, California-based company's dominance in search coming from consumers who are making use of their smartphones to look up for information made a large chunk of the tech giant's projected success this year.

The 44-year-old IIT educated, Chennai raised executive has also kept a close eye on his birth country and its progress. In fact, he has time and again revealed about his plans to further accelerate the Indian government's push towards digital economy. Earlier this year, Pichai visited India to unveil Google's Digital Unlocked program, a program aimed at getting all of India's 51 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) online.

[Image Credit: Justin Sullivan | Getty Images]

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.

Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg Join Hands To Build Foundation For Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan

The world recently observed the 96th death anniversary (26th April, 1920) of Mathematics' genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died at a young age of 32 due to a severe case of tuberculosis and vitamin deficiency. Ramanujan is known for his great contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series etc. and is credited with all the major developments that took place in the field of Maths in the 20th century.

Inspired by the great personality that Mr. Ramanujam was, well-acclaimed director Matthew Brown has directed a biopic on the Mathematics' Marvel by the name "The Man Who Knew Infinity." The biopic was recently screened at Silicon Valley over a weekend and got a massive response from the audience. Arranged by Russian billionaire and founder Yuri Milner, the screening was attended by a lot of top names in the Silicon Valley, who were spell-bound by the mathematicians' life journey.

Now, the news that is making buzz in the industry and has caught everyone's attention is, that inspired by the movie Google's Sundar Pichai and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg have decided to form a foundation to honour the legendary Indian mathematician.

According to a newspaper report, Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google), Sergey Brin (founder, Google), Mark Zuckerberg (founder, Facebook), Brendan Iribe (CEO of Oculus VR), and some other fifty other '1 percenters' of Silicon Valley were at Yuri Milner's house in Los Altos this weekend to attend a private screening and dinner for the biopic and they all were filled with emotions towards the end of the film.

Some of the attendees, including Zuckerberg and Pichai, were so moved by the film that they then and there pledged to form a foundation in Ramanujan's name.

Set in the year 1913, the biopic beautifully captures Ramanujan's journey from anonymity in his small village in Tamil Nadu, India to towering fame in England. In the movie, Ramanujan's character is essayed by actor Dev Patel, globally acclaimed for the Oscar wining Slumdog Millionaire.

Ramanujan who had almost no formal training in pure mathematics field, was a self-taught genius, who failed out of college due to his obsessiveness for mathematics as a subject.
He only liked reading and studying Mathematics and would end up failing most of the subjects due to this.

"The Man Who Knew Infinity" hits the Indian theatres on Friday, April 29.

Who all can't wait to watch the biopic? Let us know in the comments below.

[Top Image - Shifter.pt]

Sundar Pichai, Mark Zuckerberg Join Hands To Build Foundation For Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan

The world recently observed the 96th death anniversary (26th April, 1920) of Mathematics' genius Srinivasa Ramanujan, who died at a young age of 32 due to a severe case of tuberculosis and vitamin deficiency. Ramanujan is known for his great contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series etc. and is credited with all the major developments that took place in the field of Maths in the 20th century.

Inspired by the great personality that Mr. Ramanujam was, well-acclaimed director Matthew Brown has directed a biopic on the Mathematics' Marvel by the name "The Man Who Knew Infinity." The biopic was recently screened at Silicon Valley over a weekend and got a massive response from the audience. Arranged by Russian billionaire and founder Yuri Milner, the screening was attended by a lot of top names in the Silicon Valley, who were spell-bound by the mathematicians' life journey.

Now, the news that is making buzz in the industry and has caught everyone's attention is, that inspired by the movie Google's Sundar Pichai and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg have decided to form a foundation to honour the legendary Indian mathematician.

According to a newspaper report, Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google), Sergey Brin (founder, Google), Mark Zuckerberg (founder, Facebook), Brendan Iribe (CEO of Oculus VR), and some other fifty other '1 percenters' of Silicon Valley were at Yuri Milner's house in Los Altos this weekend to attend a private screening and dinner for the biopic and they all were filled with emotions towards the end of the film.

Some of the attendees, including Zuckerberg and Pichai, were so moved by the film that they then and there pledged to form a foundation in Ramanujan's name.

Set in the year 1913, the biopic beautifully captures Ramanujan's journey from anonymity in his small village in Tamil Nadu, India to towering fame in England. In the movie, Ramanujan's character is essayed by actor Dev Patel, globally acclaimed for the Oscar wining Slumdog Millionaire.

Ramanujan who had almost no formal training in pure mathematics field, was a self-taught genius, who failed out of college due to his obsessiveness for mathematics as a subject.
He only liked reading and studying Mathematics and would end up failing most of the subjects due to this.

"The Man Who Knew Infinity" hits the Indian theatres on Friday, April 29.

Who all can't wait to watch the biopic? Let us know in the comments below.

[Top Image - Shifter.pt]

Sundar Pichai Is Now The Highest-Paid CEO in US

Sundar Pichai, the Indian origin chief executive of one of the world's topmost search giant company, Google, seems to have flagged off the year on a fabulous note.

A regulatory filing has recently revealed that Pichai has been awarded $199m in shares by his company Google. This figure puts him on the pedestal of being the highest-paid chief executive in the whole of the United States.

Pichai assumed the position of chief executive of Google after the creation of Alphabet, its parent company.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the 43 years old was awarded 273,328 Alphabet shares worth a a whopping $199m on February 3rd this year.

On the other hand, according to Forbes, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, are worth $34.6bn and $33.9bn respectively.

The newly awarded Alphabet shares takes Pichai's total stock value to approximately $650m. Pichai joined Google in the year 2004, initially as a leading product management on a number of Google's client software products, like Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Drive. He slowly, slowly climbed the ladder and became the chief executive of the company.

Prior to Google, Pichai has worked in engineering and product management department at Applied Materials and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Pichai's share award will vest incrementally each quarter for the next three year i.e. 2019. In simpler words, he will be given full control over the shares on a gradual basis.

According to the search giant's regulatory filings for the period 2005 to 2014, the company has successfully generated sales of $34.6bn (£24bn) in the United Kingdom during the period with an estimated profit of about £7.2bn on those sales.

Further, Google's Alphabet recently pipped Apple as the world's most valuable firm after it generated a profit of $4.9bn in the three months to the end of December, which is an increase from the $4.7bn figure a year ago.

Sundar Pichai Is Now The Highest-Paid CEO in US

Sundar Pichai, the Indian origin chief executive of one of the world's topmost search giant company, Google, seems to have flagged off the year on a fabulous note.

A regulatory filing has recently revealed that Pichai has been awarded $199m in shares by his company Google. This figure puts him on the pedestal of being the highest-paid chief executive in the whole of the United States.

Pichai assumed the position of chief executive of Google after the creation of Alphabet, its parent company.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the 43 years old was awarded 273,328 Alphabet shares worth a a whopping $199m on February 3rd this year.

On the other hand, according to Forbes, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, are worth $34.6bn and $33.9bn respectively.

The newly awarded Alphabet shares takes Pichai's total stock value to approximately $650m. Pichai joined Google in the year 2004, initially as a leading product management on a number of Google's client software products, like Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Drive. He slowly, slowly climbed the ladder and became the chief executive of the company.

Prior to Google, Pichai has worked in engineering and product management department at Applied Materials and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Pichai's share award will vest incrementally each quarter for the next three year i.e. 2019. In simpler words, he will be given full control over the shares on a gradual basis.

According to the search giant's regulatory filings for the period 2005 to 2014, the company has successfully generated sales of $34.6bn (£24bn) in the United Kingdom during the period with an estimated profit of about £7.2bn on those sales.

Further, Google's Alphabet recently pipped Apple as the world's most valuable firm after it generated a profit of $4.9bn in the three months to the end of December, which is an increase from the $4.7bn figure a year ago.

Google's Internet Balloon Project Facing Roadblocks In India

While Google's CEO Sundar Pichai is waking waves in India with his humane charm and subtle display of intelligence, his company's much ambitious project called the Project Loon is facing a tough time to being able to see the daylight in the country. According to some media reports floating the net, the project is facing strong opposition from at least three of the main Indian ministries, which includes defence, telecom and civil.

Project Loon is a balloon-based project, which aims to provide internet access to all in the country.

Apparently, Project Loon is also on Pichai's agenda of discussion when he meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this week. The two had first discussed the project during Modi's much talked about Silicon Valley visit in the month of September. According to some sources, the Prime Minister’s Office is directly monitoring the progress of Project Loon.

Through this project, the Internet giant's mission is to provide internet access to rural and remote areas in the country. The project will be making use of high-altitude balloons, some 18 km from the ground, to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G-LTE speeds transmitting as far as 40 kms in diameter.

Project Loon is most likely a short for loony since the company itself came up with an idea to provide internet services to 5 billion population.

To those, still skeptical about its working, Project Loon balloons will basically float in the stratosphere layer on a height twice as high as the weather balloons and aeroplanes.

[caption id="attachment_102812" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Loon uses high-altitude balloons, 18 km from the ground, to create an aerial wireless network with up to 4G-LTE speeds transmitting as far as 40 kilometers in diameter [/caption]

According to the company, the balloons involved in Project can go anywhere they need to by descending or rising into a stratum of air, blowing in the desired direction of traveling.

According to the company, the balloons involved in Project can go anywhere they need to by descending or rising into a stratum of air, blowing in the desired direction of traveling.

The project is facing opposition from the ministers because they are concerned that the balloons may interfere with flight paths. That's why the Civil aviation is in the favour of these balloons been monitored via the Air Traffic Control in order to avoid accidents. On the other hand, the home ministry is concerned that the balloons might get used for surveillance creating a safety issue for the entire country.

Whether the Project is able to see the light of the day, is something which we will have to wait and closely watch.

Google Released New Android 5.0 'Lollipop' (No Laddu or Lassi)

People in India might get little disappointed that Google released its next Android version 5.0 and named it 'Lollipop' in contrast to speculation that Head of Google's Android division Sundar Pichai who is Indian himself will give an Indian name to the next Android version such as Lassi or Laddu !

Allthewhile, on 17th October, Google announced 13th major release of Android and Notably it's the first to be fully developed under Sundar Pichai, the Google senior vice president. Along with Lollipop, Pichai is introducing three Google-designed devices, including the supersize Nexus 6 smartphone, manufactured by Motorola Mobility (MMI) with a fairly gigantic 6-inch screen. (P.S. - The iPhone 6 Plus display is 5.5 inches.)

Lollipop is Google's largest, most ambitious release on Android with over 5,000 new APIs for developers. Lollipop is designed to be flexible, to work on all your devices and to be customized for you the way you see fit. Lollipop is made for a world where moving throughout the day means interacting with a bunch of different screens—from phones and tablets to TVs.

Lollipop also gives you more control over your device. You can now adjust your settings so that only certain people and notifications can get through, for example, when you’re out to dinner or in the middle of an important meeting. And when an important notification does come through, you can see it directly from the lockscreen.

Android Lollipop also provide a new battery saver feature that extends the life of your device by up to 90 minutes—helpful if you’re far from a power outlet. The new Android version has enabled multiple user accounts and guest user mode for keeping your personal stuff private. And you can now secure your device with a PIN, password, pattern, or even by pairing your phone to a trusted device like your watch or car with Smart Lock.

Android Lollipop's New 'Kill Switch' Could Discourage Smartphone Theft

The new Android Lollipop have a new "kill switch" feature which lets its users to enable it on their phones. The feature, dubbed "factory reset protection," requires a Google ID and password before a phone can be reset, and only works when a phone passcode is enabled.

The kill switch is a great step toward making smartphone theft less tempting when a stolen phone can't be wiped clean and resold, it becomes a useless brick. However the kill switch is still opt-in feature for users.

Kill switches work on two levels: damage control and loss prevention. If your phone’s already been stolen, a kill switch can prevent your data from falling into the wrong hands by letting you remotely wipe your phone.

With this feature Android devices will more likely to be sold out comparing to its competitors like Apple which being expensive are more prone for thefts. Notably, Android runs on 85 percent of the world’s smartphones.

Introducing Android One; India is First to get it, available at Rs.6399

Google has finally launched "Android One" smartphone family in India on Monday at price starting at affordable Rs.6399 (US $105), Android One is an initiative announced earlier this year which is aimed at boosting sales in key emerging markets through cheaper prices and better quality software.

As speculated, Google has tied up with Indian handset makers Micromax, Karbonn and Spice Mobiles to launch the 6,399 rupees phone, which is powered by Google's operating system and targets the booming low-cost segment of the world's fastest growing smartphone market. The new Android One family smartphones will be available online in India on Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.



For our readers, don't get confused that Andoid One is new Android OS; it's not, Android One is a new family of Android devices, designed in collaboration with several manufacturers. The current version of the Android OS is Android KitKat only.

An Android One device will always run the latest version of Android on a high-quality hardware package. You'll enjoy a smooth, fast, lag-free experience and access to the latest technology, features and apps. All at a really affordable price. Updates in all Android One devices happen automatically over the air (OTA), through your 3G or WiFi connection.

Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android division of Google said - "There are three big reasons why it’s hard for people in countries such as India, Indonesia or the Philippines to get their hands on a high-quality smartphone. First, is the hardware itself. Even entry-level smartphones still remain out of reach for many (bear in mind that in some of these countries the average monthly income is around $250). Second, many people in these markets do not have access to the latest Android software and popular applications. Finally, even where 3G and 4G networks are available, not enough people have phones that can support data and the plans can be expensive."

"Android One aims to help tackle these challenges. By working closely with phone and silicon chip makers to share reference designs and select components, we’re making it easier for our partners to build phones that are not just great to use, but also affordable. They have lots of processing power, so you can get information quickly. They have high-quality front- and rear-facing cameras. And for all those pictures, along with your apps and videos, Android One phones will have expandable storage. We also added features that people in India will find particularly useful, like dual SIM cards, a replaceable battery and built-in FM radio.", added Pichai.



After launching in India, Google said it plans to expand Android One to Indonesia, Philippines and other South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) by the end of 2014 and in more countries in 2015.

The company is working with partners including Alcatel Onetouch, ASUS, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic, Xolo, and chipmaker Qualcomm to build more devices under Android One program.

Google to tie up with Micromax, Karbonn and Spice to launch smartphones under $100 (Rs 6,000)

Google, the internet giant has decided to partner with Indian handset-makers Spice, Micromax and Karbonn to launch $100 (Rs.6,000) Smartphones. Some of these Smartphones are expected to be launched in early September.

This news was announced in Google’s annual developer conference on Wednesday by the company’s senior vice-president Sundar Pichai. If experts are to be believed, this move by Google will shoot up the Indian brands popularity and credibility all over the world. It will also increase the already stiff competition in the entry-level Smartphone market of the country.

This initiative by Google has been named the Android One initiative. Under this initiative, the Indian handset-makers will be provided with hardware reference models so as to create high quality Smartphones that too at low cost.

According to Sundar, the Smartphones will be first unveiled in India and then launched globally. These phones can be expected to run a standardized version of Android which will permit faster updates.

Pichai while showcasing a 4.5 inch Micromax device with dual SIM slots, FM radio and expandable memory also added that Google is also currently working with Indian carriers so as to make these Smartphone users available with affordable data packs.

The first batch of these Smartphones can be expected to hit the Indian markets in somewhere around early September. In all possibility, these phones can be co-branded as the tech giant may not want to venture into the hardware business again after no additional follow ups on Nexus and selling off Motorola.

These Smartphones will take the low end phone market competition, where Samsung and Nokia are already functioning to an all new level.

Whatever may be the case, the customers are expected to gain considerably from the tech giants this move. The customers are expected to get more value and the overall experience is set to become better and faster as with the standard Google platform, the updates will be quicker.

Google’s this initiative has not come as a surprise, as everyone wants to reap in the fruits of the booming Indian Smartphone market. According to the data made available by IDC, the Smartphone market in India tripled itself in the first quarter of this year with 17.59 million devices being shipped compared to 6.4 million during the same time interval last year.

Top Image - [Flickr]

Google to tie up with Micromax, Karbonn and Spice to launch smartphones under $100 (Rs 6,000)

Google, the internet giant has decided to partner with Indian handset-makers Spice, Micromax and Karbonn to launch $100 (Rs.6,000) Smartphones. Some of these Smartphones are expected to be launched in early September.

This news was announced in Google’s annual developer conference on Wednesday by the company’s senior vice-president Sundar Pichai. If experts are to be believed, this move by Google will shoot up the Indian brands popularity and credibility all over the world. It will also increase the already stiff competition in the entry-level Smartphone market of the country.

This initiative by Google has been named the Android One initiative. Under this initiative, the Indian handset-makers will be provided with hardware reference models so as to create high quality Smartphones that too at low cost.

According to Sundar, the Smartphones will be first unveiled in India and then launched globally. These phones can be expected to run a standardized version of Android which will permit faster updates.

Pichai while showcasing a 4.5 inch Micromax device with dual SIM slots, FM radio and expandable memory also added that Google is also currently working with Indian carriers so as to make these Smartphone users available with affordable data packs.

The first batch of these Smartphones can be expected to hit the Indian markets in somewhere around early September. In all possibility, these phones can be co-branded as the tech giant may not want to venture into the hardware business again after no additional follow ups on Nexus and selling off Motorola.

These Smartphones will take the low end phone market competition, where Samsung and Nokia are already functioning to an all new level.

Whatever may be the case, the customers are expected to gain considerably from the tech giants this move. The customers are expected to get more value and the overall experience is set to become better and faster as with the standard Google platform, the updates will be quicker.

Google’s this initiative has not come as a surprise, as everyone wants to reap in the fruits of the booming Indian Smartphone market. According to the data made available by IDC, the Smartphone market in India tripled itself in the first quarter of this year with 17.59 million devices being shipped compared to 6.4 million during the same time interval last year.

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