Indian American entrepreneur Sundar Pichai was at IIT, Kharagpur India where he interacted with the students and shared his experiences as a student. The Google CEO during his interaction said that he would like to see the entry level smartphones in India to come further down to around $30 so as to improve access to the internet and digital services for people.
Pichai was at his alma matter at IIT Kharagpur and said that the focus is on the local areas like local language support and improving connectivity in India as it is slowly becoming a global player in the digital economy. The CEO while addressing the students said, “I would love to see cheaper smartphones, entry-level smartphones. I think to really we need to bring the prices down even more, maybe at $30 level (about Rs. 2,000) for India for entry level smartphones” .
In 2014 Google launched its programe Android One and partnered with some of the handset makers to launch high quality yet affordable devices for the consumers in the competitive markets of India. Some of the handsets were launched by some of the partners like Karbonn, Micromax and Spice. The handsets during the launch were priced at Rs. 6,399 onwards, however since then several affordable smartphones with better specifications hit the market. AT present there are smartphones which are available for even Rs. 1,000. Pichai added that the company has been able to roll out many programmes for Digital India through effective public private partnerships.
The CEO cited a few examples like the partnership with RailTel for offering Wi fi services at the railway Stations and with NPCI for digitizing payments. Pichai added that he is confident that India will soon be a global player in terms of digital economy. The Google CEO at the interaction also revealed that the search engine is also working on a number of projects like Internet Saathi to educate people on the internet.
Photo Credits; Indian Express
