Airtel, Google collaborate to boost digital transformation in India

Bharti Airtel and Google Cloud on Monday collaborated to boost productivity and digital transformation in India and cater to the evolving needs of millions of Indian businesses in a rapidly digitising economy.

Beginning Monday, Airtel will offer G Suite to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) in the country as part of its integrated ICT portfolio.

G Suite is a set of intelligent apps -- Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar and more -- designed with real-time collaboration and machine intelligence to bring people together and help them work smarter and safer.

"Airtel and Google Cloud have a shared vision of delighting customers with great products. India, with its growing economy and adoption of digital services, offers one of the biggest opportunities to serve customers with innovative solutions. We are pleased to strengthen our relationship with Google Cloud and build products and services aimed at transforming Indian businesses," Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.

This agreement will provide a platform to both companies to tap growth opportunities in India, which ranks amongst the fastest growing economies and has the second highest number of Internet users in the world.

"Indian companies are making a massive transformation to the cloud and we're thrilled to partner with Airtel to support this transition. The combination of G Suite's collaboration and productivity tools with Airtel's digital business offerings will help accelerate digital innovations for thousands of Indian businesses," said Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud.

The telecom operator currently serves over 2,500 large businesses and over 500,000 SMBs and technology startups across India.