A digital bridge

The first tranche of the $10-billion fund announced by Google to ostensibly drive the Digital India programme has gone into the kitty of Reliance Industries’ digital unit, Jio Platforms. Alphabet conglomerate CEO Sundar Pichai, who had a virtual interaction with PM Narendra Modi earlier this week, has stated that the Jio outlay is the biggest investment Google would make under its digitisation fund. With an investment of $4.5 billion (around Rs 33,750 crore), the US tech giant will get a 7.7 per cent stake in the unit that runs Reliance’s music, movie apps and telecom ventures. Several big players have invested in Jio Platforms over the past few weeks, including Facebook, Qualcomm and Intel Corp. Considering the huge Indian market waiting to be tapped, it’s not surprising that Google has jumped on to the bandwagon.

The Google-Jio tie-up could prove to be a win-win situation for both companies as they will collaborate to build an Android-based operating system for a low-cost 4G/5G smartphone that will be tailor-made for Indian users. Around 35 crore users — nearly one-fourth of the country’s population — still have a 2G feature phone, which lacks the advanced functionality of a smartphone. The key question is: will the partnership turn out to be just another mutually beneficial arrangement or will it play a key role in bridging the divide between the digital haves and have-nots?

The benefits of an ambitious collaboration ought to percolate down to the lowest stratum of society, enabling even the poorest of the poor to access digital services provided by the government as well as the private sector. The pact also has to be dovetailed with Atmanirbhar Bharat so that ample employment opportunities are generated to spur self-reliance. The government can move closer towards realising its vision of ‘transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy’ by facilitating the creation of dynamic entrepreneurs, not software ‘coolies’. It’s imperative to accord priority to research & development as well as innovation so that India comes up with global products which transform people’s lives. What the powers that be need to ensure is a level playing field, not letting a behemoth sweep the board.

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