Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Rajan Anandan, vice president for South East Asia, on Wednesday announced new initiatives for small businesses in India.
Pichai announced "Digital Unlocked" courses in association with B-school ISB and FICCI at an event in New Delhi.
Minister for Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad also addressed the media during the event.
Pichai announced a new website called 'My Business', which will enable small businesses to get a website within just 10 minutes.
With India emerging as one of the world's leading economies, Pichai made a series of announcements anchored around the technology giant's proposed initiatives that would enable emerging businesses to go digital.
Pichai announced the launch of new tools, training and support systems for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India.
"We have learned that when we solve for a place like India, we solve for everyone around the world," said Pichai.
"We need scale, speed and agility and that is what platforms like Google will bring to Indian businesses and customers," he added.
SMBs in India can now leverage a tool that will help them create websites for free.
"My Business Website - to be launched later this year - will provide an easy way for businesses to create a simple, professional and mobile-optimized website - all in less than ten minutes," Pichai said.
Anandan said that a greater uptake for digital by SMBs could help increase their contribution to India's GDP by 10 percentage points, taking it up to 46-48 per cent by 2020.
"Today, anyone can become an entrepreneur, but it is important that they have the right tools and skills to digitalize," he said, reaffirming the company's commitment to empower India's 51 million strong SMB community.
The company also launched a certification course for SMBs in collaboration with ISB. It will also partner with FICCI to conduct 5,000 workshops covering 40 cities in India over the next three years.
The internet giant also launched Primer, a free mobile app designed to teach digital marketing skills in an easy and interactive way. It also works offline and is currently available in English and Hindi.
"Google is as much Indian as it is American," said Minister Prasad.
"The sheer number of people who have accepted Google here should be an indication of the obligation the company has to India as well," he added.
