Google's Project Loon coming to India soon

He announced that Google is building an office in Hyderabad, to increase the workforce of India based engineers, to make its products better suited to the needs of the Indian market. According to Pichai, by 2016 India will have more Android users than the US.

Communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday after a meeting with Google's CEO Sunder Pichai that the government has in-principle agreed to partner with Project Loon on a pilot basis and state run BSNL has been assigned to partner it. He also told about the Google's plan to train India developers at 30 varsities.

Describing himself as a huge fan of cricket, technology giant Google's chief Sundar Pichai on Thursday said he wanted to be a cricketer in his childhood, revering legends like Sunil Gavaskar in his growing years.

The company has also sought approvals from the Indian authorities to float balloons over the Indian airspace that will provide Internet connectivity to the hard to access rural areas as part of Project Loon. Jen Fitzpatrick, VP for Maps, Google said, "We are focused on keeping Maps relevant for India".

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Wednesday at a Google for India event in New Delhi in which he addressed developers and entrepreneurs. Importantly, it was announced that more than 100 railway stations in India will have Wi-fi access and first station tor receive Wi-fi access will be Mumbai Central. Speaking at today's "Google for India" event in Delhi, Sundar and a team of Google product leaders outlined the latest steps in the company's strategy for bringing more Indians online and giving them a great experience when they get there.

During his visit, Pichai is also expected to meet President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The company now has 1,500 employees in India.

Pinchai said that Google had already used India as a test-bed for a number of technologies aimed at emerging markets, reports , citing , speeding up search on slow connections, and YouTube Offline. He noted that in 2016, there will more users in India than in the US. This is Pichai's maiden visit to his native country, after he was named the CEO of Google in August.