Google to invest $ 1 billion in digitalisation in India

New Delhi (AP) – Google on Friday said it would invest up to $ 1 billion with Indian company Airtel to speed up the use of cloud technology in businesses to provide affordable smartphone access to more than a billion Indians.

As the country moves to embrace online education, payment and e-commerce amid the corona virus epidemic, Google said in a blog post that the investment will help India’s small businesses adopt digital tools.

Google will pay $ 700 million for Airtel’s 1.28% stake as part of its “Google Fund for Digitalization of India” launched in 2020. In addition, Airtel has pledged to allocate up to $ 300 million to business deals over the next five years, it added in a statement.

The two companies plan to jointly develop software for 5G and other standards.

Airtel is an Indian provider of global communications solutions with over 480 million customers in 17 countries in South Asia and Africa.

Google services reach over 100 million users in India. But it faced legal trouble with the country’s competing authority for allegedly abusing its dominance of its Android operating system in the smart TV market. Smart TV makers say there is no alternative to Android, so Google is forced to install apps.

Google has denied any infringement and stated that its licensing procedures are in accordance with the law.