India has been growing as a big player in the technology industry as big companies in the industry such as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) shift their focus towards the second most populous nation in the world. Apple CEO, Tim Cook, recently visited the country as did the Dell Inc. CEO, Michael Dell. Another big tech industry CEO is also set to visit the country. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella is going to visit his birth country to help understand the low penetration of the market there and understand ways they can change that as a company.
This is set to be the third visit for Satya Nadella since his takeover of Microsoft from Steve Ballmer back in February 2014. In his first trip, during the 25th anniversary of Microsoft in India, the company launched three new local data centers which offered the Azure cloud services. He also visited back in December 2015, which was a personal visit.
Now the CEO has a plan set forth for his third trip to the country. He is set to give a keynote speech at a Microsoft-organized event on May 30 which is titled, ‘Tech for Good, Ideas for India.’ At the event, the CEO is expected to communicate and listen to developers, students, young achievers and any aspiring tech entrepreneurs. The event is expected to be graced by Minister of State and Finance in the company, Jayant Sinha. The chairman of Microsoft India, Bhaskar Pramanik, and the general manager for the developer experience at Microsoft India, Narendra Bhandari is also expected to be there.
A later meeting with the industry leaders in the company is expected to go on at the Confederation of Indian Industry. Confirmation on whether Satya Nadella is going to meet up with the Prime Minister of the country has not been made yet.
The Microsoft CEO, just as the Apple CEO, is expected to address the divide and gap between the digital industry in the country and also help empower businesses and all tech related individuals in the process. On the commercial front of his visit, the cloud technology is expected to be the main thing, together with low-cost connectivity and the TV White spaces are expected to be focused on the consumer.
The TV White Spaces technology was launched back in 2015 by Microsoft and makes use of unutilised low band frequencies to be able to transmit data. It is a rival to the Google Project Loon and Facebook’s Free Basics programme. The Indian government has favoured the TV White Spaces technology over the rivals. The company is already involved in projects so that they can bring the technology to villages in the country after already doing tests.
The company also wants to use the accelerator program so they can better advance the entrepreneurs in the country. The company is offering digital literacy, online safety, and computer science education programs through the YouthSpark program.
