Google CEO Sunder Pichai visiting to India Today

Today, Pichai said that 100 stations will get Wi-Fi by the end of 2016, which 10 million people will use every day. “Mumbai Central station will be online by January”, Pichai said at an event in Delhi. India still only accounts for a small part of Google’s earnings, but that hasn’t stopped the company from making big bets on the South Asian nation as an important part of its long-term game plan for developing markets, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.

Stressing on importance of internet connectivity, he said that it is critical to spread the reach of internet across the country. “This is in partnership with Railtel”, Mr Pichai said.

Google Search VP Tamar Yehoshua said 50 per cent of Indian internet users were on 2G networks, while those on 3G were complaining of 2G-like speeds.

At the Google for India event in New Delhi on Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai talked about the company’s plans for supporting the Digital India initiative.

Google will collaborate with Indian Railways, to make the availability of wifi on 500 railway stations across the country, by next year. “Google has been on a long journey in India to build products that connect more people, regardless of cost, connectivity, language, gender, or location”, Anandan said.

Google pointed to one example of an Indian company, Flipkart, that is taking advantage of some of the latest technologies that are being built in to the Chrome platform for a better experience for Indian users.

The telecom wing of the Indian Railway, RailTel, had signed an agreement with the subsidiary of Google India to provide Wi-Fi facilities at 400 stations across the country.

India-born Pichai on his maiden visit after becoming the CEO is set to meet with government officials and entrepreneurs to expand Google’s presence across the country. “India has always been key for Google and we continue to work towards evolving our product offerings for the unique needs of our users”. Earlier this year, Google introduced the ability to download YouTube videos and watch them later offline. The search giant will also up hiring in Bengaluru. It is partnering with firms such as film schools and institutions to ensure more effective content gets uploaded. At that time, he had announced the launch of Google’s ambitious Android One project, which has not kicked off yet.