Hyderabad to house Google’s biggest facility outside USA

Google logo100 railway stations to become wifi-ready by 2016-end, says global tech giant’s India-born CEO Sundar Pichai

Global technology giant Google has announced that it will set up a huge new campus in Hyderabad at an estimated cost of Rs 1,000 crore.

Speaking at ‘Google for India’ programme in New Delhi on Dec 16, the India-born CEO Sundar Pichai said the campus will be spread over a sprawling seven-acre area and will likely generate over 6,000 jobs.

Going by the announcement, the Hyderabad campus of the tech giant will be biggest facility outside the US. Although Google has currently four offices in India, its proposed Hyderabad campus will be its first own campus in the country. It expects the campus to become operational in about four years’ time.

Meanwhile, the Telangana Government has also confirmed that it has inked an MoU with Google, allocating 7.2 acres to Google at Gachibowli, where the tech giant will build the facility with a built-up space of about 2 million square feet.

On his maiden visit to India after taking over as the CEO of Google, Pichai is accompanied by a number of other top executives from Google and YouTube.

In contrast to layoffs by several IT & ITeS companies in India, the CEO also revealed the Google plan to make major hiring at its Bangalore and Hyderabad centres.

During his two-day India visit, Pichai is scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He will also be addressing students at a Delhi University college.

Wifi at railway stations

The India-born CEO also went on to announce that 100 out of the targeted 400 railway stations will become wifi-ready by the end of next year, starting with Mumbai Central station, which is set to become live by January 2016.

He said that providing wifi at railway stations is part of the Google’s mission to provide Internet access to everyone.

Earlier this year, Google subsidiary, Google India, entered into an agreement with the telecom wing of the Indian Railways, RailTel, to provide wifi facilities at 400 stations in the country.

Highlighting the importance of Internet connectivity, CEO Pichai said that it is critical to spread the reach of internet across the country, and that mobile internet can be a game changer in this regard.

“Our focus is on bringing internet access to everyone, making sure our products are working for them in a meaningful way and then ensure that our platform allows them to add their voice to the Internet,” he said.

Pichai further said that Google’s rural Internet programme will move from pilot to full-scale programme in 300,000 villages in India, though he did not specify any time frame for that.

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