Emergent opportunities
Days after PM Modi rolled out the figurative 'red-carpet' for foreign investors while promising conducive structural reforms, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai became the first of many investors to heed the call. Just this Monday, Pichai was revealed to have held a video call with PM Modi. The details of the conversation were slowly revealed by PM Modi's Twitter account. It was revealed that the meeting had a wide range of discussion on various topics. Talking points ranged from cybersecurity to the use of technology in transforming the lives of India's farmers and entrepreneurs. A majority of the conversation it seems revolved around COVID-19 and its effects on work culture, on sports, on education and other aspects of daily life. Pichai also discussed Google's efforts in battling rampant misinformation during the pandemic and praised the PM regarding India's timely lockdown. He also briefed the PM on Google's new AI (artificial intelligence) research lab in Bengaluru and even took on the time-relevant opportunity to extoll Google's flood forecasting efforts. The conversation served as a good setup for the sixth annual edition of "Google for India" event that took place digitally later in the day where the IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad joined Pichai in discussing the digital transformation of India. During the course of the day, Pichai also announced a $10 billion investment fund for Digital India. Pichai explained that this investment would come in the form of equity investments and partnerships. There would also be investments to launch new products and services in India. There were also talks of increasing internet penetration in India and using technology for social causes such as health and education. In an interview with the 'Economic Times', Pichai declined to specify the exact target of this investment fund, though a Bloomberg report has since claimed that Google is already in talks with Reliance Industries regarding a $4 billion stake in Reliance Jio platforms. While both Reliance and Google have declined to comment on this report, this supposed investment would follow in the footsteps of several high profile investors like Intel and Facebook. But Pichai has stressed that Google's focus will not solely be on bigger investments and also target smaller startups, particularly in regard to Indian app makers and service providers that are attempting to go 'big' in order to capitalise on the PM's call for 'Aatma Nirbhar Bharat'.
The conference itself covered a broad range of Google's investments, services and products in India, both ongoing and planned. Pichai spoke of the possible development of low-cost smartphones which can increase India's internet access in conjunction with affordable data plans. He spoke of Google's partnership with CBSE and the company's AI tutor app called 'Bolo'. With specific reference to the challenges thrown up by the pandemic, Google also talked about their 'Teach from Home' project and it has been accessed by four lakh educators since launch. There were also talks of expanding online payment in India using 'Google Pay'. All in all, the conference was a way for Google to show its commitment to accompanying India in its goal to become a global leader in digital access and use. But why are Google and other powerful tech companies suddenly interested in becoming extremely involved in India? Amazon, Facebook, Intel, Google, etc., have all shown interest in expanding their operations, services and investments in India during this year.
Some of it is simply a continuation of earlier trends. Google has some history behind its association with India. It must also be noted that India has the second-largest number of internet users anywhere in the world, an enormous potential that every tech company has noted and certainly wishes to exploit. Some of it, no doubt, also has to do with the current political and social scenario where Chinese products, services and investments are being frowned upon in India. Curbs on Chinese companies, particularly on the digital front in India, is an opportunity for the various American giants to make much easier headway into the Indian market and establish themselves while the situation holds. Either way, this attention bodes well for the prospects of Digital India.
