Google For India: Tech giant announces new features for Indian users; Details inside

Google recently hosted the annual 'Google For India' event where the company announced new updates specifically for the Indian market. Google has partnered with several companies in the country to extend the benefits of the growing economy in the country to even more people. The announcements talked about Google’s growing focus on product innovations that will help new Internet users in India get easier access to information in Indian languages, create more natural ways for local language speakers to interact with the internet, make the Android experience more helpful, and provide support to India’s small businesses and youth.

Speaking at the event, Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & Vice President, Google India, said, “Across people, businesses, and institutions, the outbreak of COVID-19 has catapulted India’sadoption of digital to unprecedented levels. With the fundamental drivers of digitization now in place, and millions of new users coming online, India’s goal of becoming a truly digital economy is within sight. It is now imperative that we step up our efforts in building products that are even more inclusive of India’s diverse and unique needs. 

Updates announced by Google at 'Google for India'

• Google is working with the global online courses provider Coursera to help bring new courses for students in India. The courses will help students in learning essential concepts for thriving in a digital-friendly career stream such as UX design, IT management and more. Google has plans to reach more than 10 lakh students. Additionally, it will also offer one lakh scholarships.
• Using Google voice assistant, users will now be able to book end-to-end Covid-19 vaccine appointments. Google Assistant-enabled, end-to-end vaccine booking flow will guide users through the process of booking a vaccination appointment on the COWIN website with voice guidance in English and eight Indian languages at each step. This feature will be available in Chrome on Android and will begin rolling out in early 2022.
• Google Search will now support more Indian languages so that each user can search and get answers in their native language for a better understanding. Users will be able to translate more content into their language. 
• Google Pay users will be able to set Hinglish as their preferred language. This is the first time for Google and the first company in the industry to launch the support of Hinglish. With this option, users will be able to navigate through the application with the language of their preference. 
• Google also joined hands with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to launch a USD 15 million (INR 110 crore) financial assistance program, enabling Indian micro-enterprises to avail loans of INR 25 Lakh to INR 1 crore at competitive interest rates. The program aims to fulfil the credit needs of Indian micro-enterprises, helping them make investments in their business operations, such as purchasing new machinery and equipment, production infrastructure, and working capital requirements.

Google has a large market in India. Given that there are millions of users across the country that access Google's services on a daily basis, the company wishes to grow by including more users on the platform by removing the language barrier. Stay tuned for more technology news.