Google's "Solve for India" initiative to help entrepreneurs
Google has now launched the "Solve for India" initiative with the aim to support budding developers and entrepreneurs in the country. This programme aims to nurture and give support to the growing start-up culture in India. "Solve for India" is going to focus mainly on tier-2 cities to mentor and provide the technical know-how about all things Google. Let's find out all about it.
Small cities will become an integral part of the project
Google India, Program Manager Lead, Karthik Padmanabhan believes that, "There are growing number of entrepreneurs in smaller Indian cities who are focusing on building solutions that cater to the real needs of India." Therefore, the initiative aims to bring all the start-up enthusiasts from emerging cities like Jaipur, Nashik, Madurai, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Kochi, Indore, Nagpur, Kolkata, Chennai and others for the project at hand.
Mentorship and a proper learning curve
The developers and entrepreneurs who will join the programme will interact with Google engineers, who will share their methods, insights and the process of developing mobile first solutions. Interested Web developers will also get to learn Android, Firebase, Machine learning, Cloud APIs, Progressive Web Apps and Indian Language Translation solutions from Google experts during this 'Solve for India' initiative.
Google Launchpad mentoring programme as an added bonus
In its maiden year, Google is expecting that 10,000 developers and entrepreneurs will sign up to make use of this opportunity. Those who will enrol in the programme will also get an access to Google Launchpad mentoring programme, enabling them to get their early-stage ideas take the next big leap towards reality.
The current problem at hand
Google India Lead, Karthik Padmanabhan feels that start-ups need to focus on the entire spectrum instead of a select audience. He said, "Majority of India's Internet users are Indian language users, and over 80% of them access the Internet from their mobile phones. But the current Indian start-up ecosystem is building products for English speaking audience and caters only to 15% of the population."
Addressing the needs of a billion Indians
Padmanabhan believes this initiative will "help create solution that serves the needs of a billion Indians" for the problem at hand. Google has said that it will provide over $20,000 (roughly Rs. 12.8 lakh) in Google cloud credits along with $50,000 (roughly Rs. 32 lakh) equity-free investments that the developers and entrepreneurs will also be able to avail via Launchpad mentoring programme.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai gets his pay cheque
Following the rise in Google's sales and net income, CEO Sundar Pichai received stocks worth $198.7 million in 2016, which is a steep rise from $99.8 million he received in 2015. Pichai's total compensation now stands at $199.7 million. Meanwhile, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin drew the traditional $1 salary but are worth more than $40 billion each, thanks to their stocks.
