Google, the disruptor
The recent visit of Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, indicated that the tech giant has decided to set great store by its investments in India. Mr Pichai announced multiple India-specific projects, which could all have a transformational and disruptive influence. “Project Loon”, “Tap to translate”, “Offline mapping” and “Asus Chromebit” are among the most interesting. These are at the cutting edge of technology. Other Google projects such as delivering free Wi-Fi at railway stations, more streamlined search, the establishment of a new campus in Hyderabad, and the training of two million Android developers will generate employment, and also have large positive externalities. There is a common thread. India is a low-bandwidth geography with relatively low Internet penetration. The telecom system, power supply and other infrastructure are significantly less reliable than those in the First World. But India also has a very large number of sophisticated surfers and skilled compu...