Google aims to take net users in India to 1 bn-mark

Google executive said this is possible by making the Internet more accessible and affordable

Tech giant Google on Thursday said it has set a target of taking the number of Indians using Internet to a one billion-mark.

"We have a very simple mission in India. We want to get a billion Indians online," its Vice President for South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan said at an event in Mumbai.

However he did not give any timeline for the target, but said India has 350 million Internet users now and the number is expected to reach 600 million by 2020.

The Google executive further said this is possible by making the Internet more accessible and affordable, which the company is trying to do through its initiatives like free wi-fi at railway stations in association with Railtel.

The project, launched earlier this year, already boasts of 2 million active users on a monthly basis at 27 railway stations across the country, Anandan said.

Google has also embarked on an initiative to get three lakh women online through a special initiative in the next three years, he said.

For a faster pick-up, Google is ensuring that its products are available in multiple languages beyond Hindi and English, he said adding that the given the data usage sensitivities of Indians, it is also necessary to build lighter products which the company is doing.

The company is trying to increase the number of trained and certified Android developers in the country to two million from the 50,000 at present, he said.

To grow the entrepreneurial ecosystem around the tech offerings, it has also launched 'Google Capital' in the country, he added.