A large section of India lives in villages and doesn’t even have access to Internet, but Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai wants to get a billion Indians online. Here’s what he said in New Delhi on Wednesday:
Better permormance at low speed: Google products will perform better on slow internet services, including 2G cell phone connections; web pages will load faster, leading to 50 per cent traffic hike
Smart maps: Google Maps allowing real-time navigation and searches without a data connection
Offline YouTube: Now, one can watch videos online without an Internet connection, and a new feature from next year will buffer paused videos faster
Railwire: Project to provide free WiFi at 100 stations by next year, connecting 10 million people passing through
Project loon: Balloons in the stratosphere to provide Internet connections in the villages
Internet bikes: Google will work with Tata Trusts to provide Internet bikes in over 300,000 villages in three years. It has already started the project in 1,000
Training plan: Will train 2 million Android developers over the next 3 years, with 30 universities in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation
Chromebit: A device to turn a monitor into a computer. To be available in India from Jan, likely to boost computer use in education
Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
