If you haven't been aware, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is currently on a visit to the Silicon Valley where he is meeting industry leaders in the tech space including Mark Zuckerberg, Satya Nadella, Tim Cook and Elon Musk.
The reason behind the trip is the Indian Government's Digital India initiative, which aims to transform the country into a connected hub of innovation. The visit to the US has been very successful in showing the importance India has in the grand scheme of all things tech including software development.
Coming to some of the announcements made during this trip:
- 1. Microsoft plans to bring cheap broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in India, which would be a game-changer in the field of education with more than 70% of the population still residing in villages in India.
- 2. Google announced that it will offer high-speed public WiFi across 400 railway stations in India, allowing people to watch HD video, search their destination, read a book online or download a game all while they wait for their train to arrive. Moreover, Android will natively support 10 Indian languages including Gujarat, Hindi.
- 3. Facebook re-affirmed its plan of providing free access to Internet and services for India under its Internet.org initiative. Although this has been under fire for some time given the restrictions it poses on net neutrality by favoring certain carriers and services.
- 4. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, also showed interest in manufacturing the iPhone in India under FoxConn.
- 5. Tesla will be looking towards India when they launch their less expensive Model 3.
Although these are just some highlights of what's happening with PM Modi's trip to meet various US tech companies. There is a sense of acknowledgement of India's contribution to the development of technology that we take for granted, be it in the form of software or hardware and that will trickle down to develop the talent base in India with this initiative.
