Sundar Pichai is currently in India on a two-day visit, his maiden tour to the country after becoming the CEO of Google. At the Google for India event, Pichai revealed several plans the company has for India.
In partnership with RailTel, telecom wing of Indian Railways, the Mountain Veiw-based firm intends to bring Wi-Fi connectivity to nearly 100 train stations in the country by 2016.
"In our attempt to provide Internet access to people, we have decided to provide WiFi in 400 railway stations with RailTel. The 100 stations will come online by 2016 end. Mumbai Central station will be online by January," said Pichai at the Google for India event.
Google is also looking to expand its operations in India and is headhunting. Pichai let on that Google was keen on hiring employees for its Hyderabad and Bangalore offices. The company also has plans of building a new campus in Hyderabad, which will be massive "to build capabilities."
Google's "bicycle for women" program is also set to see expansion in the country. As part of the initiative which encourages women to get online, the program is focusing on expanding from pilot to cover nearly three lakh Indian villages in the next three years.
The company also spilled the beans on the Tap to Translate feature for Android phones, which will be released in Q1 2016. The new feature basically enables any text to be translated on Android-powered phones. The text will merely need to be copied and one will not be required to leave the app for the purpose. Google already has a virtual keyboard, which enables people in India to type in 11 Indian languages.
What else does Pichai have in the pipeline you wonder? Project Loon. Yes, it is coming to India. Google's Project Loon is aimed to offer Internet connectivity to users through balloons. The technology has already been tested by the company in California, Brazil and New Zealand. The balloon is able to offer connectivity to ground areas stretching to 40kms in diameter. This is made possible thanks to 4G or LTE, a wireless communication technology.
The India-born CEO said at the event that he hopes to give so much more to the country as it has been generous to him and the whole team at Google. He added that what the company is currently focused on is building products for billions of Indians who are yet have access to the Internet.
