Sundar Pichai Announces Digital Unlocked for SMBs

India has about 51 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) running on the present day. Also, these small and medium businesses contribute to 37% of the total India’s GDP. Out of 51 million SMBs in India 32% are leveraging internet as a powerful tool for various operations, which pin points at the online availability and usage of the other 68%.

To assist the remaining 68% in terms of the strength and reach that they have been missing due to digital barriers, Sundar Pichai, Google Global CEO, has announced the launch of a new training program called Digital Unlocked.

Prior to the announcement of the launch, a joint study was conducted between Google and KPMG under the heading Impact of Internet and Digitization on SMBs in India. The joint study had a few pointers that highlighted the future scope that will be created by Digital Unlocked. It has been observed that most SMBs deals or caters to customers or clients, which are at different geographic location or outside the city, most of these businesses, grow twice the rate provided they have an online presence.

Pichai said: “The internet and digital technology will be an engine of growth for the Indian economy. Today, anyone can become an entrepreneur, a developer, or a creator, but it is important that they have the right tools and skills to digitize. We believe it is important for us to invest in training and equipping these individuals and small businesses to accelerate their journey of growth.”

In order to provide a fair chance and balance the 68% of SMBs mentioned above, a training program to empower the digital skill set of these business owners. Pichai, announces to provide free training to these businesses to help them grow via the potential of digitalization.

As per Digital Unlocked, the training is available in different formats: online, offline and mobile training. The offline training is set to take a course of 3 years, with about 5,000 workshops to be held across 40 Indian cities. It is believed that with this there is an expectation to have about 10% increase in the share of total GDP of India as contributed by SMBs.