1. Google to nurture local startups in Karnataka
Tags: Economy/Finance State News
Tech giant Google has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Karnataka government on 17 November 2022 to promote local startups across the state and create new opportunities through digital skilling initiatives. The Indian start-up ecosystem is the world’s third largest such ecosystem, with Karnataka being the start-up hub of India.
Google will collaborate with the Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) to offer women-led founders and startups across tier 2 and tier 3 cities access to essential training, partners, and expertise on Google’s suite of tools and technologies.
The company will also organise knowledge and mentorship sessions in areas such as cloud, user experience, Android, web, product strategy, leadership and marketing to help these founders with growth, monetisation and tech skills.
Google will equip teachers in local schools with essential training to teach students the necessary skills to promote the fundamentals of online safety and digital citizenship through an interactive curriculum as part of the company's ‘Be Internet Awesome’ programme.
Google’s Startup Mentorship initiative in India
According to Google, it has mentored over 1,500 startups that have collectively raised over $2 billion and created over 12,000 jobs. Through its Startup accelerator, the company says it has nurtured 116 startups across six batches since 2015.
In June 2022, the tech giant launched a dedicated Startup accelerator programme for women founders, designed to address challenges that are unique to their experience, including fundraising, hiring and many others.
It has also launched a virtual Startup mentoring programme called Startup School India in July 2022, aimed at nurturing 10,000 startups in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
It was formed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. In 2015, Google was reorganized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Company.
It is an American multinational technology company that focuses on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics.
Chief Executive Officer: Sundar Pichai
Global Headquarters: California, United States of America
Google India Headquarters: Hyderabad
2. CCI fines Google Rs 936 crore for abusing its dominant position in its Play store policy
Tags: Economy/Finance
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has fined search engine giant Google Rs 936.44 crore for “abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies”. This is the second time that Google has been fined by the CCI. Last week Google was fined Rs 1,337.76 crore by the CCI for abusing its dominant position in the Android mobile device market.
The CCI found Google of following discriminatory policy regarding the listing of an app on its play store . Google play store is the official online store for Android devices. The Android operating system has been developed by Google and almost 96% of smartphone’s in India run on Android operating system.
What is the issue ?
If any company which has developed an android app and wants to get listed at the playstore then it has to pay a fee to google. The app developer has to use the Google Play Billing system(GPBS) only to pay the fees to Google.
App developers that do not use GPBS are not allowed to list their products on Google Play Store.
This was found by CCI as violative of the competition principle as Google was abusing its market dominance position to keep payment competitor’s like Unified Payment Interface (UPI), wallets and other apps out of the market .
The CCI noted Google forced app developers to use in-app payment systems because selling in-app digital goods made an important means for these developers to monetise their work.
The regulator has issued a cease-and-desist order, suggesting eight corrective measures including providing access to third-party billing payment processing systems on its Play Store.
The CCI has given 30 days to implement the corrective measures and modify its conduct.
