Free RailWire WiFi from January, training for 2 million developers, Project Loon: Google announces its India plans

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is on a visit to India along with the company's top executives and Pichai delivered the keynote address at the 'Google For India' press event in New Delhi, where he and the other executives shared the plan for the tech giant's strategy to expand its services and access to the Internet in India.

At the event Pichai shared the future roadmap for Google's ambitious plan to provide free WiFi access in railway stations across the country. The plan was officially announced in September when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Google's headquarters during his visit to the Silicon Valley.

Google will launch the service in a phased manner, beginning with one railway station from each of the 16 railway zones in the country. Mumbai Central will be the first station to offer free RailWire Wifi in January 2016 and Google expects to connect 100 more station by the end of 2016.

The service will provide high-speed Internet for the first hour before downgrading to a lower speed post that. The service however will remain free throughout the access period. When asked about the expected speed, Gulzar Azad, Google's head of access programs - India, refused to divulge details on the speed but said that users will be able to watch HD-quality videos during the first hour, adding that the speed will be faster than what the average speeds in India are.

Google also said that it is expanding its program with Tata Trusts to connect women in rural India through a fleet of Internet bikes. The program has reached 1,000 villages so far and aims at a target of 3 lakh villages nationwide within three years.

Google also announced a major expansion to its Hyderabad campus and said that the company plans to train two million new Android developers over the next three years working in coordination with more than 30 universities.

Marian Croak, VP, access strategy & emerging markets at Google, said that Project Loon that provides Internet through balloons will soon be coming to India.

Google also showcased some of the new features that the company has developed across its services for better access on slow connections.

The Asus Chromebit, a small Chrome OS device that can turn a monitor into a computer, was also announced for the Indian market at a price of Rs 7,999 with availability starting from January 2016.

For a cricket crazy India, the Silicon Valley giant, also announced plans to improve its cricket coverage with realtime scores and video highlights for both IPL and international matches.

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