Only 8% of Goa’s SMBs are online: Shalini Girish

HERALD: Google had discussions with the IT community and the government last year. What is the status?

SHALINI GIRISH: One of the first starting points on Small and Medium Business (SMBs) is for them to try and get online. Goa is not necessarily lagging behind. I feel the country itself needs to move faster. India has 51 million SMBs and less than 6 per cent actually have their website. As far as Goa is concerned, there are 1,00,000 SMBs in the State and about 8000 of them have a domain and a website. I think there is a lot of work to be done. We hope that the training programmes we do, the tools that we offer for SMBs should help them come online.

HERALD: For rural women Google had launched ‘Internet Saathis’ programme. What is the progress in that in Goa?

SG: I think few pilots have done after the announcement of it last year. They are yet to launch it full-fledged in Goa. We are hoping that some this year we will be launching it full-fledged.

HERALD: How does Goa benefit from your presence?

SG: Google would like to be a partner for India. In Google, India is a big focus because we are focused on the ‘next billion users’. India is the home for ‘next billion users’ and Goa being the part of India it is very critical for us. India is also the second largest user of Internet on the planet but we still have a long way to go. We are hoping that by 2020, India will have 650 million Internet users and Goa will play a big role in this regard. There are lots of initiatives which we would like to give access to the people in Goa, which includes Internet Saathi programme, free WiFi at railway station etc. As far as free WiFi in railway stations are concerned, we have already covered 115 stations out of the promised 400 and I am sure Goa too will be benefited by it.

HERALD: Tell us something about the website you have launched recently for SMBs?

SG: Yes we have launched a website for SMBs on June 13 and it is completely free and you can create a website. We want to see some traction through this year on this website. One has to search for ‘Google My Business’ which will give you all the details.

HERALD: How can SMBs benefit from being online?

SG: There are a lot of advantages. The big ones are that the online businesses are earning revenues and profits more than offline business. In fact they are able to offer five times more employment as against offline. Also, the biggest advantage it that their reach to customer will be limitless once they are online and thus help generating more revenue and profit and also growth of the business. Just go to “Google My Business” it will help you create a website and grow in business.