| |NOVEMBER 20239INDIA A VITAL CLOUD MARKET FOR GOOGLE BESIDES THE US SAYS BIKRAMDespite accounting for a modest portion of Google's worldwide revenues, India is one of the company's most significant markets outside of the United States, according to Bikram Singh Bedi, managing director of Google Cloud India. Bedi stated on the sidelines of Google For India 2023 in New Delhi that the company's strategic emphasis on India is driven by the huge growth prospects the country provides. "India has a very large customer base for both Google as well as Google Cloud. Asia is where all the action is, and a lot of growth is happening here--with India, in particular. We are also looking for partnership opportunities to accelerate India's digital transformation journey and infrastructure," Bedi added. Google made three significant announcements for its cloud-based generative artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives for India, including a partnership with the ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) for the Bhashini local language repository project. The collaboration marked the launch of a centre of excellence dedicated to "generative AI and language inclusivity", as per livemint. "Bhashini's research teams will leverage Google Cloud to use secure data architecture and generative AI application building tools. These tools will help India develop responsible generative AI models that are trained on government datasets and Bhashini's language translation technology. This combination will be used to speed up citizen services in Indian languages, and develop homegrown generative artificial intelligence technologies. We will also train over one million students and professionals with generative AI skills." Microsoft Corp. India Pvt. Ltd, the company responsible for sales and marketing of Microsoft products in the country, its operating revenue increased 39 percent to 19,229 crore in the fiscal year ended 31 March from the previous year. Net profit jumped 30 percent year on year to 649 crore, while employee benefit costs increased 16.5% year on year to 1,411 crore. Microsoft's growth in the country has been largely driven by a rise in revenue from its services offerings, its financial filings through business intelligence platform Tofler showed. Revenue from the sale of services grew 46.4 percent to 13,103 crore, up from 8,951 crore a year ago. Revenue from products, including Microsoft's Surface line of consumer and enterprise laptops and desktops, grew 28 percent to 4,508 crore from 3,519 crore a year ago, as per livemint. The company's total development in India is being driven by increased demand for its cloud platform Azure and generative artificial intelligence (AI) services for companies. According to industry stakeholders, Microsoft controls around one-fifth of India's cloud services market with its Azure platform and services, trailing market leader Amazon Web Services (AWS). Microsoft Azure has a 20.8 percent market share for cloud service providers in India at the end of last year, according to business intelligence platform Course5i. In comparison, Amazon Web Services held 32.6 percent of the market in India, while Google Cloud Platform was third with 11.4 percent. Microsoft's standing as a cloud service provider has grown globally as well. INFOCUSMICROSOFT INDIA REVENUE SOARS 39 PERCENT TO RS 19,229 CRORE
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