Indian entrepreneurs can build next Google, says Eric Schmidt

New York: India's entrepreneurial innovators have the potential to build the "next Google" if the country "plays its cards right" and ensures Internet access for millions of its citizens, Google's executive chairman Eric Schmidt has said.

In an essay written for the book 'Reimagining India: Unlocking The Potential of Asia's Next Superpower' edited by global consulting firm McKinsey, Schmidt dubbed India "an Internet laggard" saying he feels Internet in the country today is like where it was in America in about 1994 - four years before Google was even born.

He said India must increase its Internet penetration across towns and cities, a move that will have a positive impact on its economy and society.

The former Google CEO said he witnessed the creative potential of India's people all around him in Silicon Valley where India-born entrepreneurs account for 40 per cent of start-ups.

"Just think what will happen when India's entrepreneurial innovators are able to create great global companies without leaving their country. They will change the world. Hundreds of large firms focused on the Internet will be founded and will succeed by focusing purely on Indian consumers, Indian taste, Indian style, Indian sports.

"Can anyone of those companies ultimately become the next Google? Of course."

"That may not happen for quite a few years. But if India plays its cards right, we will soon see Indian engineers and small businesses tackling Indian problems first, then exporting the solutions that work best," Schmidt said.

With a total population of 1.2 billion, India has over 600 million mobile-phone users but only about 150 million people regularly connect to the Internet.

In 2011, India's Internet penetration rate was 11 per cent, "far below" that of developed nations where penetration rates average 70 per cent.

India's Internet penetration rate is less than a third of China's penetration ratio of 38 per cent and less than half of those in developing countries, which average 24 per cent.

"By any reasonable definition, India is an Internet laggard... In spite of its well deserved reputation as one of the world's leading IT and software development hubs, India is far from being the connected society many foreigners imagine," Schmidt said.

The number of India's broadband users, 20 million, is even smaller, Schmidt said however adding that India is on the cusp of a connectivity revolution.

"I believe India has the chance to leapfrog its current connectivity challenges, bring Internet access to a majority of its citizens - and even raise its penetration ratio to 60 or 70 per cent within the next 5-10 years," he said.

He said if India connects its next 500 million people with Internet, it would make the country the largest open-access Internet market in the world.

"In 10 years' time I predict it will be almost impossible for any child in India to imagine what life was like before the Internet. But to realise that promise India must make the right technology choices," Schmidt said.

Schmidt stressed that one key choice India should make is how quickly it builds out the fixed-line networks in its cities and towns adding that fiber-optic cables are by far the best way to promote higher connectivity.

India should also get its cellular technology right, making the transition from 2G and 3G to 4G technology as quickly as possible.

Fourth generation technology makes "far more efficient use of the spectrum and users can get so much more bandwidth out of it".

Schmidt said it may take time for India to achieve these two goals because its telecommunications industry is undercapitalised and has a lot of debt.

"But I am confident that eventually the transformation will happen," he said.

The Google head said investing in a bigger, faster telecom network will have a big payoff for India as that network combines with one of the most "radically life-altering developments" of the last decade - the emergence of moderately-priced mobile devices.

"In India this phenomenon is sure to unleash a customer-driven revolution on a scale we have never seen before in education, financial services, healthcare and entertainment," he added.

Next: Google asks India to embrace transparency in Internet use

Google asks India to embrace transparency in Internet use 

New York: Asserting that Internet freedom will help attack corruption, Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt has asked India to embrace 'transparency and openness' of the web that will have a potentially game-changing impact on governance.

"At Google we believe that in fact the freer a country's Internet, the better chance that country has of exposing deep-rooted problems and confronting them honestly," Schmidt said in an essay written for the book 'Reimagining India: Unlocking The Potential of Asia's Next Superpower' edited by global consulting firm McKinsey.

"... Will India embrace an open network or a closed one. The political impulse to try to shield people from inflammatory, obscene or defamatory commentary and images in a country as diverse and often fractious as India is understandable but misplaced," Schmidt said.

He said while India is known for its "freewheeling" democracy and "boisterous" political debate, a Google search of 'India Internet censorship' generates thousands of hits documenting episodes in recent years of government authorities demanding the closure of websites or dispatching law enforcement officials to intimidate people for posted material deemed to be objectionable.

"These actions are often well-intentioned especially when they are aimed at suppressing ethnic violence. In general though, such policies are misguided and inimical to India's broader national interests.

"... But trying to control what people say is a losing proposition. It is much better to let good speech overwhelm bad speech, using the kinds of principles that have worked reasonably well on the free and open Internet we enjoy in the US and other developed countries," he said.

Given the progress made by India over the past decade, it is "hard not to be optimistic" about the next 10 years. "Global success and a vast improvement in living conditions for hundreds of millions of its citizens are within the country's grasp but only if India's leaders invest in the right infrastructure and embrace the transparency and openness of the Internet," he said.

The former Google CEO said it is "no secret" that India is plagued by corruption, which impedes the country's economic progress, frustrates ordinary people's efforts to advance themselves and seriously infringes on individuals' rights to fair treatment by the authorities.

He argued that Internet freedom will produce information and images that are displeasing and even appalling to many segments of society. "False accusations and hateful commentary are inevitable if unfortunate components of the Internet mix," he said adding that democratising Internet access has a potentially game-changing impact on governance.

Schmidt said one of the Internet's "great virtues" is that it empowers individuals and groups to expose the excesses and abuses of those in positions of power.

"As the Internet penetrates India...we will see dramatic improvement in the status of women, access to education and the transparency in public life necessary to improve governance and attack corruption.

All of those are necessary preconditions to the economic and commercial success that India's remarkably talented people deserve." India's 'ambivalence' about Internet freedom often surprises those who do not live, travel or do business in the country since other countries like China are far more famous for exerting command and control over cyberspace, he said.