Qualcomm announces support for Digital India and Make in India programs; will

While speaking at a dinner in honor of visiting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella said the Redmond-based company aims to bring low-priced broadband to 500,000 villages in India as a part of Digital India initiative (via Times of India).

Qualcomm will also establish an Innovation Lab in Bengaluru to provide technical and engineering support for both local consumption, and the rest of the world, the company said. “We are committed to providing local innovative start-ups with the support needed to help India’s IOE ecosystem grow, increasing consumer choice and availability”. The company is also set to extend its support to the start-ups in financial, marketing and technology fields.

“Since Qualcomm’s first India investment in 2007 and with full-fledged presence starting in early 2008, we continue to invest broadly to strengthen India’s overall economy“, Nagraj Kashyap, senior vice president of Qualcomm, said in a statement.

It has directly invested in YourStory – a story-telling blogging platform for entrepreneurs, MapMyIndia – a digital map portal for navigation and tracking, Portea Medical – in home healthcare provider, among others.

“We will support multiple mobile device design companies in India”, the company said.

The firm is already an active investor in several Indian startups through its corporate venture capital arm Qualcomm Ventures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told United States tech greats that his government’s vision of Digital India was an enterprise to transform India on a scale “perhaps, unmatched in human history” that would touch the lives of those living in the farthest corners of the country and also change the way the nation “will live and work”. “We should expect good growth in India in terms of mobile printing”, Leong told PTI. For more than 15 years, Qualcomm has been helping India’s mobile ecosystem achieve success by working with the software developers, operators, sales, and distribution partners, as well as governmental entities.

Qualcomm has been playing a key role driving India’s wireless revolution by making mobile communications increasingly accessible and affordable.