Google to give free cloud service worth $20,000 to 1000 Indian startups

Global search engine giant Google on Wednesday announced that it will offer 1,000 Indian startups with up to $20,000 each in free credits for Google Cloud services starting in 2016. By bringing its cloud platform to India's startup community, Google plans to help those who are held back by a lack of computing to power, to build, deploy and scale their future innovation.

At the same time, the company announced that it will cover the fees of Google Apps for any business locked into an enterprise agreement (EA) with another provider until its contract runs out.

Moreover, it will also chip in on some of the deployment costs to set companies up for success with one of the Google for Work Partners. Google will offer a simple contract with no additional traps once their current EA expires. Switching to Google Apps for Work will help most businesses with basic EAs and no dependencies to potentially unlock savings of up to 70%, it said.

"With the second largest developer population in the world, India is poised to be home to next generation of global software firms. We're committed to partner these next gen companies and enterprises as a trusted provider of affordable, collaborative and easy to use productivity and cloud computing tools to help them succeed. Over the last few years, we have gained tremendous momentum in helping companies go Google in India and we're confident that with these new initiatives, we will further bring down the barriers for companies to make the switch to Google Apps," Amit Singh, president, Google For Work said.

Well-known companies like Hero Motocorp and Bombay Dyeing and Indian-born multinationals like Welspun Group already use Google's IT and cloud computing services. Google's latest announcement will surely attract Indian startups into using them as well.

"We are excited to work with our current and soon-to-be customers to continue building the future of work in India. With the Enterprise Agreement offer and Cloud Platform credits for startups, we hope to see Indian businesses continue to rise," Mohit Pande, country head, Google for Work India said.