NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Monday, September 28, 2015

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Silicon Valley has also come with some major announcements like Wi-Fi in railways stations and broadband connectivity in villages.

PM Modi is one of the first Indian leader who managed to speak to a host of Fortune 500 CEOs, during his second US visit. He met Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella, Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Qualcomm’s Executive Chairman Paul E. Jacobs, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and CISCO’s John Chambers.

Google also released a map showing the first 100 stations that will have high-speed Wi-Fi by the end of 2016.

1) Microsoft’s Broadband Connectivity to 5 lakh Villages

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced that Microsoft will partner with the Indian government to bring low-cost internet connectivity to 5 lakh Indian villages.

2) Google to provide free WIFI at 500 stations

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that Google will partner with Indian Railways to provide high-speed broadband internet connectivity at 500 Indian railway stations.