Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to communicate the company’s support of the Make in India and Digital India initiatives. Nadella also paid a visit to Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad, as well as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Nadella is said to have met with them in order to discuss the security situation of the government’s digital infrastructure, touch on the topic of bringing it up to date and so on. Earlier this year, we saw Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos from Amazon meeting the Prime Minister too. Microsoft is calling it a ‘courtesy visit’ though it’s obvious that it’s because India is starting to show itself as an important market for tech companies.
The Times of India reports Nadella to have mentioned that Microsoft wishes to contribute to the Digital India and Make in India ventures. Both initiatives have been undertaken by the government in the hope of closing the gap between those who are connected and those who’re not. The only prominent person who has voiced doubts about the plan to hook up 2.5 lakh villages to broadband services is Rahul Khullar, head of TRAI.
Khullar thinks the ambitious project will not succeed if the only emphasis is on building the physical infrastructure. Apparently, more stress needs to be laid on making applications to go with it instead of just concentrating on laying out optic fiber pipes. Coming back to Nadella who is visiting the country for the second time since September, he shared Microsoft’s keenness to deliver last mile Internet support.
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While the main topics of data security and manufacturing electronics in India were spoken about, the Microsoft chief also revealed the company’s eagerness to help create secure, government-regulated digital infrastructure. A big subject which was brought to Nadella’s notice by Prasad covered the nation’s growing e-commerce industry and the importance of connectivity with regards to this.