India aims to go digital :Sundar Pichai

New Delhi, Dec 28 : As India aims to embrace the digital era, Google's India-born CEO Sundar Pichai is set to heat up the domestic technology market in the new year with a focus on small and medium businesses in the country.

Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will join Pichai and other senior Google leaders during an event in the capital on January 4, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

"At Google, we are excited about partnering the businesses to help them unlock exponential growth through the power of digital," the statement read.

Seven Indian startups recently joined the third batch of Google "Launchpad Accelerator" -- a platform which brings together mentors and experts from Google and outside to help the startups see success -- along with startups from other countries.

Over the last one year, 13 Indian startups have participated in the programme and some of them have successfully raised funding.

Aiming to raise awareness about online safety, Google India in collaboration with the Ministry of Consumer Affairs last week announced a nationwide ?Digitally Safe Consumer' campaign as part of a larger effort to help better protect consumer interest online.

Google, in collaboration with Railtel, last week rolled out free WiFi service at Udhagamandalam (Ooty) station in Tamil Nadu, taking to 100 the railway stations where it offers high speed internet to an estimated 10 million people.