Google’s Sundar Pichai in India, to announce schemes for small businesses

Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai will announce some key initiatives for Indian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on Wednesday as part of the tech giant's efforts to bring more businesses online in the country.

Information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will also join Pichai and other senior Google executives during the event.

"Small and medium businesses are the backbone of the Indian economy and are powering the next wave of the country's growth. At Google, we are excited about partnering with businesses to help them unlock exponential growth through the power of digital," Google said in an invitation.

Pichai is also scheduled to visit his alma mater, IIT Kharagpur, on January 5. He graduated in 1993 with a BTech in metallurgical and materials engineering.

Google has been aggressively focussing on the Indian market over the last few years. With products like Google for Business and a new Cloud region, the company is betting big on tapping into the multi-million dollar opportunity in India. Its products compete with those from the stables of global giants like Microsoft and Amazon Web Services.

Seven Indian startups recently joined the third batch of Google "Launchpad Accelerator" -- a platform which brings together mentors and experts from Google and other companies to help startups develop. Over the last one year, 13 Indian startups have participated in the programme and some of them have successfully raised funding.