Google launches digital programme in India for SMBs

The Dollar Business Bureau

Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai has launched 'Digital Unlocked', a training programme meant for empowering India’s small and medium businesses (SMBs) to support them to get their businesses online.

Currently, India has around 51 million SMBs that contribute 37% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Out of these, just 32% businesses are online or are leveraging the benefits of internet. It is the remaining 68% that Google India wants to empower digitally in 2017, stated Pichai.

Google Chief Executive, who is on a short visit to India, reaffirmed Google’s commitment while addressing a gathering of SMBs at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday.

“The internet and digital technology will be an engine of growth for the Indian economy. Today, anyone can become an entrepreneur, a developer, or a creator, but it is important that they have the right tools and skills to digitise. We believe it is important for us to invest in training and equipping these individuals and small businesses to accelerate their journey of growth,” said Pichai.

“Digital Unlocked is a training programme that will empower small business owners in India with necessary digital skills to help them get online and start leveraging the power of Internet to boost their business,” according to a Google press release.

According to a joint study by Google and KPMG, “Impact of Internet and Digitisation on SMBs in India,” 52% of digital businesses in India cater to the clients outside their city and employ 5 times more people compared to businesses which are offline whereas profits of digitally-engaged businesses grow two-fold as fast than offline SMBs.

The study also highlighted that increasing penetration and larger uptake for digital by small businesses could help in increasing their contribution to country’s GDP by 10%, making it around 46-48% by 2020.

Google also launched a free mobile app - Primer, designed to teach skills on digital marketing, in an easy, quick and interactive way.

In addition, Pichai announced the launch of a free tool, called ‘My Business Website’, later this year that will help the SMBs to create a free, mobile-optimised website, which will be available in nine Indian languages.