GDP growth calls for holistic traffic management

By G Krishna Kumar, Apr 29, 2016, DHNS

The odd-even rule is back in Delhi till the end of April and could well be a regular fortnightly feature going forward. Is odd-even the only solution to overcome the traffic mess in our cities? Traffic congestion will be a huge issue considering that India is poised for superlative GDP growth. Why? It is established that GDP growth correlates which car sales.

Before we jump into possible solutions, let us look at some data points on passenger car sales and GDP growth in India and other leading economies. India’s passenger car sales increased by about 10% to 2 million units in 2015 compared to about 1.85 million in 2014. China is the leader in the world with over 20 million cars sold in 2015, while 17.5 million cars were sold in the US.

Interestingly, until 1990, India’s per capita GDP and car sales were higher than China. However, by 2005, China had about 2.4 times India’s per capita GDP and sold 3 million cars, about 2.2 times India’s car sales. In 2011, China overtook the US to emerge as the number one market in car sales. India has less than 20 cars per 1,000 people, while china has over 50. The US, Japan and the UK have 500 to 750 cars.  

Notwithstanding the recent turmoil in the Chinese economy, over 25 million cars are projected to be sold in 2020. Thanks to India’s growth momentum, over 4 million units are expected to be sold in 2020. Increased affordability and aspiration for bigger and better cars (in terms of advanced infotainment features) can be attributed for significant addition of new cars.

Thousands of cars are added every week in our cities. In Bengaluru for example, 9,688 cars (including 2,089 taxis) were added on an average every month over the past 6 months. Another 25,000 new two wheelers are added every month and not surprisingly we experience all-day rush hour! The situation is similar in the other cities. 

Congested roads mean significant stress on drivers and drastic productivity and economic loss. In fact, a study indicates that India loses over Rs 60,000 crore due to traffic congestion on our roads. Cars contribute to just 13% of the vehicles on our roads. We need a holistic approach from the government, car manufacturers and the general public to improve the situation.

Improving road infrastructure by widening roads or adding flyovers seem the most obvious solution. But, a study indicates that traffic will consume 90% of the additional capacity within 5 years. The government’s increased spend on smart cities can offer solution through integrated traffic management using sensors. Studies reveal that car drivers looking for parking space is the main reason for traffic pile-up. Perhaps an efficient smart car parking system needs to be developed which will provide timely parking availability information to the drivers on their mobile phones.

Congestion charge, which is imposed while driving during peak hours or in the central part of the cities, is being effectively used in London. But again, this will not work in our cities until we have efficient public transport system in place with park-and-ride or incentive parking facilities. Exactly for the same reason, odd-even formula may not work. China’s Shanghai city introduced auction of private car licences (number plate). Essentially, a fixed number of cars are allowed to be registered in a month. People trying to circumvent the system by registering cars in smaller towns are not allowed on the major roads of Shanghai during peak hours.

Although highways in India have improved over the past decade, several of them are crowded like any other city road. Just shows lack of foresight from the planners.  We will need top quality highways and expressway network similar to the one in the US or China. While China and the US have 1.2 lakh and 75,000 km of expressway, respectively, we are way behind at just over 1,300 km.

On-time completion

The government plans to add another 18,000 km of expressway by 2022. Let us hope for on-time completion, unlike the golden quadrilateral project which took 13 years for completing the 5,700 km highway. Eventually, the government’s short/long term vision and ability to deliver infrastructure projects on-time will remain the key.
Newer technologies like the vehicle-to-vehicle communication allow cars to communicate with other cars and with roadside objects, to help in reducing traffic congestion.  Car manufacturers along with the government could work closely in piloting such initiatives. 

Driving licence is the first step towards responsible driving, but then, it is really easy to obtain a licence by using bizarre methods.  Should we blame the government or public or both? A recent newspaper report indicates that the failure rate in driving tests in India is just 3-7%. An experiment conducted in Pune where applicants were made to drive on special tracks monitored through CCTV cameras revealed that the failure rate shot up to 40%. The systemic issue needs to be addressed urgently.

Technology in the car can be used to determine driving habits and thereby annual insurance premium can be linked to the same. Basically, responsible drivers pay less compared to the reckless ones.

We need to sensitise the drivers to be responsible. May be car makers could use part of the mandatory corporate social responsibility spend for sensitising public on responsible driving. 

The car makers could also tie up with not-for-profit organisations to spread safe driving. We should get students in colleges to undergo rigorous training, and through such an effort, we could see a large number of mature drivers on our roads in the coming years.  

(The writer is Adviser, Centre for Educational and Social Studies, Bengaluru)

Giving BSNL a new lease of life

G KRISHNA KUMAR

V SRIDHAR

Divestment can pave the way for a more agile management, that can put the infrastructure to optimum use.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been in the news recently for reporting an operational profit of about ₹672 crore in 2014-15 after continuous losses for the previous years. But the company is still hugely loss-making, and the CMD expects it to turn profitable by 2018.

Sliding performance

Recent announcements indicate that both BSNL and MTNL lag behind the private telcos in revenue growth. The market share of BSNL/MTNL in mobile is 8.5 per cent which declined from 14 per cent in 2008. Included in the list of Navratna public sector units in 1997, the sister firm MTNL (the operating company in Delhi and Mumbai) is on the verge of losing its coveted status, having accumulated losses at the rate of more than ₹1,000 crore per year.

The share price of MTNL has declined by 95 per cent since its heydays of ₹390 in March 2000. Though the issue of merging BSNL and MTNL to form a single company with pan-India assets and subscriber base has surfaced time and again, successive governments have put it on the backburner. While the divestment talks have not yet touched upon BSNL yet, it is time for the government to think along these lines. Here are the reasons why.

The average share of spectrum, the essential resource for providing mobile services, held by BSNL is about 20 per cent in a circle, which is significantly more than that held by most of the private telcos. The number of cell sites and associated Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) of the combine is more than 70,000, comparable to some of the leading telcos.

Unutilised infrastructure

Commanding 75 per cent of the landline user market, BSNL is a near monopoly in wired direct exchange line, especially in rural areas.

However, with all these assets, why are government telcos floundering in recent years? The main reasons, as pointed out partially by the minister, include (i) inadequate marketing of their services (ii) slow decision making with respect to purchase of equipment and managing contracts with managed service providers and (iii) inadequate management flexibility in pricing plans, and sharing arrangements, to name a few.

These have also started affecting the quality of service as is evident in the recent Quality of Service report released by TRAI.

The government firms had their own share of sops such as (i) year-ahead early start in the assignment of both 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in 2009 and (ii) reimbursement of about ₹10,000 crore of licence and spectrum charges during 2001-06, as part of commitment to BSNL corporatisation. However, the 6.2 MHz spectrum in the much valuable 900 MHz band held by BSNL/MTNL is coming to the end of its life in 2017 and it may have to be renewed pan India at the market value (if government does not provide sops once again!).

Despite the early release of spectrum, due to sloppy decisions in technology and service procurement, the BWA spectrum assigned to BSNL/MTNL in 2500 MHz band remains under and even unused in most of the circles, and has already been returned in about eight circles. The minister has also indicated that the spectrum in rest of the circles may also be surrendered soon.

Given the intensity of competition in the telecom sector, it is time that the government formulates a strategy for reviving the lagging telcos.

Globally, with the exception of China, most countries have reacted to the realities of the telecom market and acted accordingly — the notable examples being Telstra of Australia and British Telecom of the UK. In both these cases, government control was drastically reduced; they are listed in the stock exchange; with improved and agile management structure and accountability to shareholders, the companies have performed remarkably well, despite competition. The reasons for an overhaul are persuasive.

Revamp and divest

First, is the effective use of infrastructure and spectrum that BSNL/MTNL have. Despite 18.26 million fixed line subscribers with BSNL/MTNL, the number of fixed line broadband subscribers is just about 60 per cent, indicating that rest of the infrastructure is grossly under-utilised. A possible way to monetise these wired local loop assets it to accelerate unbundling it to ISPs or other telcos which TRAI included in its recommendations on Broadband last year.

Now that both active and passive infrastructure sharing is allowed along with spectrum sharing the firms should consider improving utilisation of its assets and to monetise the same using appropriate business models.

BSNL has wealth of infrastructure and network especially in the semi-urban and rural areas. It is time that BSNL adopts ‘collaborate and compete’ philosophy by sharing the infrastructure with private players and monetising the same.

Second, thanks to its preferential status, it stands to gain in phase II implementation of BharatNet. Most of the States have started developing plans for this phase; it is only appropriate that BSNL takes a lead in being part of the project as (i) contractor for laying the optic fibre to selected Gram Panchayats or (ii) provider of broadband access services or both.

Third, the government’s Digital India agenda cannot be sustained unless there is a robust broadband infrastructure and associated content available across the length and breadth of the country. BSNL/MTNL combine has the requisite infrastructure to implement the same.

For example, Telstra achieved providing their 4G network coverage to over 94 per cent of the Australian population. Telstra launched MyCareManager in April 2015, an integrated eHealth product designed to help disability, community and residential aged care providers deliver innovative services and information from a distance.

Public projects in the areas of governance, health, and education require digital infrastructure and BSNL/MTNL should take active part in building infrastructure and content for the same.

Fourth, competitors of BSNL are way ahead in vendor management practices, incorporating fully outsourced models and technology de-risking. BSNL should implement best practices in the industry for vendor management to survive in the marketplace.

However, to achieve all the above, government should lend a free hand to flexible decision making, incorporate a professional management team, inculcate customer centricity in the organisation and make it super agile. All of these are possible, only if government steps aside by divesting and making over BSNL/MTNL to a professional, responsive, and responsible organisation. This will be a great relief for the tax paying public!

Kumar is an ICT professional; Sridhar is a Professor at IIIT-B. The views are personal

(This article was published on March 20, 2016)

Here's how much subsidy Freedom 251 would need to fulfill 6 crore phone orders

PRAVEENA SHARMA | Tue, 23 Feb 2016-09:10am , New Delhi , dna

Even if we were to put aside all other doubts about Freedom 251, priced at Rs 251 by Ringing Bells, Pankaj Mohindroo, president of Indian Cellular Association (ICA), says it would be impossible for it to fund the subsidisation of the smartphone.

The recently launched Freedom 251 has taken the Indian market by storm with its unbelievable, and as many claim commercially unviable, pricing.

Mohindroo, who has asked the telecom ministry to look into the venture's tall claims, told dna it was a "serious matter" and that just the cost of subsidising the seven crore orders received in three days by the company would be more than daunting.

Even G Krishna Kumar, a Bangalore-based telecom analyst, said Ringing Bells would have to rely heavily on cross-subsidisation model to meet its promise on pricing, with the "bill of material" for a decent quality mobile phone in India currently being upwards of Rs 2,000 per unit.

"The bill of material of a decent quality phone will be upwards of Rs 2,000, that is the bare minimum cost to make a phone. There will also be overheads irrespective of the channel used for selling the phones (e-commerce or brick and mortar shops). So, if they are selling it at Rs 251, someone is subsidising the phone," he said.

After the overwhelming response that the company received for its product, it has stopped taking any more bookings.

dna was unable to reach the company officials on Monday, but according to reports in the media one of the promoters of Ringing Bells Mohit Goel assured all orders would be met on time.

Krishna Kumar observed that the orders that the handset company had received was more than 50% of the current smartphone market. According to the market research and analysis firm International Data Corporation (IDC), India's smartphone market was 103 million in 2015. The three-day order of Ringing Bells of around 70 million comes to about 70% of this.

"Rs 251-phone, if indeed can be realised with acceptable quality, can hugely disrupt the Indian smartphone market. India is among the fastest growing market for smartphones with about 2.5 crore smartphones sold every quarter in the country. That's about 100 million phones in a year," he said.

However, he said India had moved beyond the "cheapest only sells" market. "Just 10 years back before the Indian mobile phone makers entered the market, ultra-cheap Chinese phones were popular, but then they soon lost the market due to poor quality," said the telecom expert.

Imagining life in a Connected India by 2050

G KRISHNA KUMAR | Fri, 5 Feb 2016-06:30am , dna

In terms of preventive healthcare, advancements in wearables would mean real time measurement of body vitals like heartrate, cholesterol levels, blood sugar etc would be possible and predictive systems can anticipate health issues.

By 2050 India is expected to develop into world's number one economy and the most populous country wiyh 50% people expected to live in urban areas.

Such hyper growth would bring many challenges but also opportunities to leverage new technologies and innovations. Let us explore some of the new technologies that could shape our country.

We are sure to go beyond odd-even formula with smart traffic management and reliable/efficient public transportation. Connected technologies like the vehicle to vehicle communication will fully mature within the next 20 years. This means, accidents can be largely avoided as cars will alert the drivers by communicating with other cars and roadside objects.

Another example is when a drunk driver gets into the car. The car would just refuse to start! It calls the nearest rent-a-driver or even better, the car enters into an autonomous or self-drive mode and perhaps even stops at a chemist to pick up some headache tablets that it has pre-ordered.

In case of an accident/crash, the nearest ambulance is alerted, traffic lights altered for clear path to the site of the accident, injuries are pre diagnosed, right specialists are called to the hospital and even the operation theatre is booked. This will dramatically increase the number of lives saved.

In terms of preventive healthcare, advancements in wearables would mean real time measurement of body vitals like heartrate, cholesterol levels, blood sugar etc would be possible and predictive systems can anticipate health issues.

Fully connected intelligent homes will be a norm. But, won't it be amazing if you have a helping hand in the form of humanoid robots? Affordable and easy to maintain robots supporting us with daily chores, be it cleaning the house or preparing a cup of coffee would delight us.

Advanced streaming and virtual reality technologies can bring real life-like effect, experiencing stadium-like feel watching soccer match or a live concert just sitting at home.

Education sector would transform through the creation of highly knowledgeable skilled workforce. In fact, connected classrooms could obliterate the need for visas.

Let us now look at some key factors that can make the above sample cases a reality. Over the next 3-4 decades, we will see affordable and super high speed data rates giving "live experiences" for the citizens all the time.

We will see significant progress in the fields of machine learning, voice recognition and artificial intelligence, there will be a complete new paradigm with which people will interface with devices, gesture and voice support ( in local languages) will replace keyboard to a large extent. This means the digital divide between urban and rural populations will be eroded and access to technology will be simplified.

Energy efficiencies will see significant improvement over the next decades resulting in cars, mobiles, homes and even offices consuming significantly less power. We should not witness any power outages. We will also have close to unlimited data storage and instant access to data through the high speed data connections.

With a highly interconnected world, there could be challenges of too much info about an individual's likes and there could be security challenges. But then, the highly connected world will ensure basic human desires be it communication, search, shopping, entertainment, sports and travel to be much better.

Our journey is poised to be exciting over the next three decades as India gets connected and the citizens are sure to witness a safe, healthy, active and enjoyable life.

The writer is information and communication technology professional

Government will have to cut 700 MHz base price, say experts

PRAVEENA SHARMA | Wed, 3 Feb 2016-08:15am , New Delhi , dna

GSMA terms the telecom watchdog's valuation of the spectrum band as "unrealistic"; one expert says it could be slashed by as much as 20-25%

After the outcry of the Indian lobby body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on the exorbitant pricing of spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) frequency band, international mobile operators' representative organisation GSM Association (GSMA) also on Tuesday termed it "unrealistic" and telecom experts said the government had "no choice but to cut the price".

Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, told dna the government would have to come out with a "fair and workable price".

The government has no choice but to cut the base price, which is unrealistic and not reflective of National Telecom Policy 2012 (NTP 2012) and Digital India objectives. They should come out with a fair and workable price and time it (the spectrum auction) in a way that everybody (telecom operators) can participate in the auction, or else a few of them (operators) will corner the spectrum (in the efficient 700 MHz band)."

The NTP 2012 and Digital India programme aims to provide connectivity to all in affordable, secure and reliable manner. Last week, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) came out with its recommendations on spectrum pricing for the forthcoming auction, where it has valued the airwaves in 700 MHz band at a base price of Rs 11,500 crore per MHz.

G Krishna Kumar, Bengaluru-based telecom professional, believes the sector regulator had intentionally set the price high so that it had the margin to further negotiate the price.

"As in the past, the Trai proposes a high base price for the auction, and after the uproar from the telecom companies (telcos), reduces it. Eventually, the reserve price could be reduced by 20-25%," he said.

Krishna Kumar said globally 700 MHz-based data services are being pursued mainly by countries that have matured data subscribers like the US, Germany, Japan or Australia.

According to him, leading service providers like T Mobile and Telstra are aggressively using this spectrum to bolster their data services.

"The benefits of 700 MHz spectrum, also called as the digital dividend spectrum, are very high, offering 3-4 times coverage area. They can be very useful for the rural areas," said the telecom expert.

He sees a challenge in the mass adoption of this spectrum band because currently there are only a few high-end phones supporting 700 MHz.

Deloitte Haskins and Sells's Joshi believes the four times multiple valuation of the 700 MHz band spectrum, based on the discovered price of 1800 MHz in the last auction, did not make sense at a time when the balance-sheets of most telcos were stretched and realisations from voice and data services dipping.

Happy Mobile Subscribers Key to Digital India

By G Krishna Kumar

Published: 13th January 2016 06:00 AM

Last Updated: 13th January 2016 01:52 PM

 

India has 100 crore mobile phone subscribers, indeed a significant achievement considering we had less than 10 crore subscribers in 2005. Such hyper growth was possible thanks to the competitive mobile service offered by the telcos and availability of affordable phones. But then, quality of service provided by telcos has been the challenge.

Indian subscribers’ patience was tested during the past 12 months due to the incessant call drop menace. The national movement started by the television news channels, nicely followed-up by the public, ensured that the government started monitoring the call drop issue closely. 

The management adage “What gets monitored, gets done” is perhaps apt in the current context as the Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is relentlessly tracking the call drop issue.

The Telecom Minister has rightly stated that the responsibility of providing good service to the subscribers lies with the telecom operators. The government’s decision to impose a penalty from January has certainly triggered some action from the telcos. Over 29,000 towers have been added by the telecom operators across the country over the past few months. We are certainly experiencing an incremental improvement in the dropped calls.

It is quite intriguing that the telcos did not act proactively in fixing the vexing issue earlier. Also, why did neither the government nor the telecom regulator, TRAI, monitor the call drop issue with the same intensity in the past?

Call dropping is not unique to India. Malaysia handled this issue using penalties as a deterrent. Malaysia’s telecom regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) imposed a penalty of $370,000 (about Rs 2.5 crore based on the current exchange rate) on the telcos. The impact was immediate — in the very next quarter call drops were down by over 30 per cent.    

Due to the potential financial burden, the Indian telcos have sought quashing of TRAI’s ruling mandating the telcos to pay subscribers Rs 1 per call drop (capped at three per day). TRAI has blamed the lack of investment in infrastructure from the telcos for call drops. TRAI has also argued that the decision to impose a penalty has been taken in public interest. 

The Delhi High Court verdict is expected soon, but some form of penalty for poor service is needed as it will act as a deterrent. Interestingly, Telenor, a service provider in India with presence in a few states is offering a compensatory call for every dropped call through its “call katega, muft call milega” initiative.

While 100 per cent call drop-free coverage across the country is practically impossible and not required as per TRAI regulation, equally hard is to comprehend that people will “create” call drops on purpose by getting into an escalator or some area with low network coverage.

The telcos have stepped up investment plans, with Airtel planning to spend Rs 60,000 crore through the “project leap”. It has also announced the launch of a website to show live status of network coverage and site expansion. The recent announcement of Idea Cellular buying spectrum from Videocon has set the ball rolling in terms of spectrum trading.

While all the actions from the government and the telcos must be lauded in getting the call drop issue addressed, India has a fundamental issue, with too many players providing mobile service.

The spectrum is a scarce resource and due to highly fragmented mobile telecom market, Indian telcos own just 1/5th of the spectrum compared to their peers in other countries. India has an average of 10-12 telcos offering mobile telephony compared to just three in China, while the global average is four or five.

In terms of network infrastructure, a recent report states that China invested $50 billion in its networks during the past year, while India’s spend was $5 billion.

Another report states that a telco in a metro city like Delhi carries 49 hours of voice traffic every day per mega hertz of spectrum per tower. This is at least five to eight times more compared to Shanghai or Singapore.

The problem gets aggravated when we look at the way mobile phone users are consuming data in the country, as data requires far more spectrum compared to voice. Data relates to everything from Internet browsing, accessing social networking sites to downloading audio and video files.

As per the International Telecommunications Union report, India has only 20 per cent individuals using Internet compared to over 50 per cent in other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India China and South Africa) countries. However, this is fast changing as the data usage has gone up by 50 per cent in the past year and is poised for faster uptake.

This means the government needs to free-up additional spectrum, and also water down the stringent merger and acquisition guidelines. 

If the poor data connection issue persists, it will not be surprising if we witness a call drop-like uproar this year. Public Wifi can be a potential solution that the telcos are trying to offload some of the mobile traffic onto the Wifi network. Some state governments have already laid out plans for providing free Wifi and the Indian railways’ plan to provide free wifi at select railway stations through a tie-up with Google would mean good news for the subscribers.

Facebook, trying to aggressively market its free Internet plan through the “free basics” campaign, has already triggered reactions from the proponents of net neutrality. The government’s stand on this will be keenly watched over the year. Net neutrality or not, the average phone user needs good quality connection, unrestricted access to Internet and more importantly at an affordable price. As more people use their mobile phones for Internet, the quality of experience will become critical. 

In this context, TRAI should provide an easy-to-use mobile app to report any issue related to poor quality of experience. Maybe a rating system should be introduced, so that we know the best service provider in a given city or town. TRAI’s performance indicator report gets published with a lag of four to five months, but this has to be reduced significantly for effective action. The Digital India, smart city and e-governance plans will be largely mobile-oriented. Hence, it is all the more important that a good subscriber experience is ensured.

The call drop issue has certainly triggered actions on the ground from both the government and telcos. But, this needs to be sustained to keep the 100 crore subscriber base happy by focusing on quality of experience for both voice and data.

G Krishna Kumar is an ICT professional and columnist based in Bangalore.

Email: krishnak1@outlook.com

 

Google plays Santa in India

Thursday, 17 December 2015 - 7:35am IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: dna | From the print edition

There is a strong business case in the announcements made on Wednesday by the US-based Internet search company CEO Sundar Pichai on his maiden visit to India after he took over as its head.

If free Wi-Fi at 100 Indian railways stations,Project Loon to provide Internet through balloons, Internet Sathi programme for training three lakh women in villages and other such plans of Google will help the government to push its Digital India initiative, it will also lift the revenues of the Santa Clara headquartered search company.

Here's how Google will commercially gain from what it plans to do in India.

G Krishna Kumar, Bangalore-based telecom executive, said the widening of internet user base in India will lead to Google improving its advertisement revenues, which currently constitutes over 90% of its total revenue.
"By enabling internet access to more people, Google's ad revenue can be strengthened," he said.

The Project Loon and Internet Sathi too will help in further penetration of internet in the country, which would translate into higher advertisement revenues for the company.

"Still over 50,000 villages in India don't have internet access and the Project Loon provides a sudden opportunity for enabling Internet access. How well Google is able to handle the operational problems that they would encounter will be critical," he said.

Krishna Kumar pointed that if the system developed by Google is robust enough then it will certainly help the government's Digital India. He said the business model between the search company and the telecom companies (telcos) would also be critical for its success.

In Indonesia, Google recently tied-up with telcos for offering Internet services through Project Loon.

"It will be interesting to see how this will play out and can provide learning for Google's plan to implement in other countries (like India)," he said.

Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said his ministry has given an in-principle nod for the Project Loon's pilot and a final decision would be taken after all the security aspects and clearances from aviation ministry were sorted out.

"In-principle, we are agreeable for a pilot project (Loon). Certain issues of security and the harmony with civil aviation ministry have to be done. We'll finalise that also, but surely we are quite open to the idea of the Project Loon being undertaken on a pilot basis," he said.

Prasad informed Google will partner with BSNL for the pilot.

Google's free Wi-Fi at 100 railway stations by 2016, beginning with Mumbai Central Station, would also bring in revenues from both advertisement and increased surfing with easy Internet accessibility at the stations, which would be cheaper than the roaming rates on regular mobile services.

"Most of these free Wi-Fi come with advertisements. Also, we have generally seen that people tend to continue surfing even after the free browsing time is over at stations and airports as they are cheaper than roaming charges," said Krishna Kumar.

Other announcements made by Pichai include hiring in Bangalore and Hyderabad, setting up new campus in Hyderabad, training two million developers along with the National Skill Development Council and bicycle for women (Internet Sathi) programme to help women get online.

The Google chief expects India's Android user base to surpass that of US by next year.

"We are excited to partner for Internet Sathi along with Community Service Centres (CSCs) and we are focused on bringing Google's products to many more Indian languages so that we can reach Indian villages," said Pichai after his meeting with Prasad.