Modi’s visit to the Silicon Valley has prompted US tech giants to announce their interest to back India’s Digital India push. Google will help India to set up the base for free Wi-Fi at 500 railway stations, while Microsoft will take low-cost broadband technology to some 500,000 villages across the country.
"We are expanding our public Wi-Fi hotspots. For example, we want to ensure that free Wi-Fi is not only there in airport lounges, but also on our railway platforms. Teaming up with Google, we will cover 500 railway stations in a short time," Modi told a gathering of Silicon Valley CEOs.
"We believe that low-cost broadband connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes," the first Indian-American Microsoft CEO said.
To push digital literacy forward, it is very important for the people to type in their native languages, Google's India-born CEO Sunder Pichai announced that next month Google would make it possible for people to type in 11 different languages on Android, including Gujarati.
Chipmaker Qualcomm said that it will invest $150 million for Indian startups in the mobile and Internet-of-everything (IoE) ecosystem. "We are committed to providing local innovative startups with the support needed to help India's IOE (Internet of Everything) ecosystem grow, increasing consumer choice and availability," Qualcomm executive chairman Paul E Jacobs said. "We share Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to transform India into a digitally-empowered society and knowledge economy," Jacobs said.
"The Prime Minister (in his meeting with Cook) said he would like Apple to start manufacturing in India. He mentioned the huge opportunities India offered," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesman Vikas Swarup told reporters. Foxconn, which is Apple's largest manufacturer, has decided to set up a manufacturing base in India, he noted.
By Premji
