Today, Google India announced two significant developments to augment their ongoing efforts to support the Indian language news ecosystem and expand the Indian language web more broadly.
Google News adds two new Indian languages
Google News serves as an important source for breaking news headlines and personalized news stories based on people’s interests for millions of users in India. Today, Google News will be expanding to include two additional Indian languages: Gujarati and Punjabi. These new languages will be available in the coming weeks, bringing the total number of languages to ten in India. This expansion reaffirms Google’s commitment to making information accessible to people across the globe in the language they prefer.
Here is a complete list of Indian languages now available on Google News: Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu.
Hundreds of news publishers across India to co-create their online news products with Google
The GNI Indian Languages Program, announced earlier this year, has received over 600 applications from news publishers across India. Of these, 300+ publishers have been selected to participate in the program, which will provide them with support to modernize their digital ecosystem and improve the user experience across web, mobile and app.
This comprehensive initiative has been designed to empower news publishers by providing them with access to essential resources and support. The program delivery will be in nine languages, including English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Malayalam, Gujarati, and Marathi, making it Google’s most diverse technology program for news publishers.
The second edition of Google News Summit opened by Nandan Nilekani
Today, Google hosted the second edition of the Google India News Summit, a forum bringing together news publishers from across the country for conversations around the future of news.
The summit is part of an ongoing effort to support journalism and media organizations in the digital age. The event saw participation from leading publishers such as Times Group, India Today Group, Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, ABP Network, Malayalam Manorama, The Hindu, and many others, sharing knowledge on how they’ve leveraged technology tools and Google’s enablement programs to reorient their businesses for the digital consumer.
The event was opened by Nandan Nilekani, founding chairman of UIDAI, who delivered a keynote about the significant shifts brought about in the Indian digital economy through digital public infrastructure.
In a conversation with Sanjay Gupta, Country Manager and Vice President, Google India, Mr. Nilekani remarked “Given the digital transformation happening, there is enormous potential for the right content at a global scale, especially in India, where UPI is enabling seamless transaction and subscription models. The hunger for trusted and credible content in this deeply aspirational country is evident, especially among the youth who seek knowledge for a bright future. There’s compelling evidence that many Indians are willing to pay for good content regularly. In this rapidly changing society, authenticity and credibility become paramount, and an infrastructure that fosters continuous learning, supported by AI, places one in a strong professional position.”
Sanjay Gupta, Country Manager and Vice President, Google India, said, “Google has been a long-standing partner of the news industry and the Google News Summit is our endeavor to facilitate discussions and knowledge sharing that can help the news industry make a successful transition to digital. The addition of supported languages on Google News, is one way in which we want to keep driving the expansion of the Indian language internet, so that more and more users are able to harness the power of information. News publishers are core to this effort and we remain committed to partnering with the news ecosystem.
The event exemplified Google’s dedication to supporting the media industry, fostering inclusive access to information, and knowledge sharing with local publishers to leverage the possibilities that digital offers.
