)
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's changing social media track is an ideal barometer to measure the success of one of the world's largest internet companies.
In 2011, the government had drawn flak for suggesting Internet platforms such as Google must submit their content for screening so as to keep out 'objectionable' material, some of which denigrated United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
While the firms protested, saying it was an impossible task, New Delhi sent summons to Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft and others, followed by another court warning that India, too, could block websites just like China, if need be.
That was then.
Last month, at Google's Big Tent Activate Summit, Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said "Internet governance, to me, is an oxymoron. How can you govern anybody on the net? You cannot. The net must govern itself."
For Google, that wasn't the only victory. Its bespectacled executive chairman Eric Schmidt got unusual traction within the Indian government, meeting not only the expected brass including Sibal and Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani, but also President Pranab Mukherjee.
High-stakes market
India isn't just another market for Google. It is among the fastest growing ones for the Mountain View, California-based firm, with about 150 million Internet users, making it the third-largest online population anywhere in the world after China and the US.
By 2015, the number of Internet users in India could double to 300 million. To boot, the country's mobile market, at 900 million users, is growing even faster. And Google here leads in almost all product categories, except for social networking, including the potentially-lucrative digital advertising market. However, it isn't merely the market size and the massive opportunity that makes India so interesting for Google. One must also consider it has little competition here, except in social media, unlike, say, in China, the next biggest Internet market.
"China has always believed in their own platforms and solutions, and they do a lot of local stuff," said Akhilesh Tuteja, partner - IT Advisory, KPMG, referring to the likes of Chinese web service company Baidu and YouKu, YouTube's Chinese equivalent. "The language difference is also critical. It isn't easy for the non-Chinese no build such platforms." All taken together, Google remains hugely bullish on India. "In the short term it is China, but math favours India," said executive chairman Schmidt in New Delhi. "And I'm a mathematician."
Government Grip
The larger problem for Google in China, however, was the state. "The Chinese government was reasonably hostile, and in China they've tried hard, but made a very bold move to get out of there. There isn't a U-turn for them either way," said Tuteja, recalling Google's decision to pull out its search engine from China in 2010 after a friction with the government there over censorship. Towards the end of last year, it also shut down its shopping and music search services in the territory.
In India, the problem is different. "There are just a few people in government who understand the Internet a little bit, and the majority don't appear to have a clue," said Nikhil Pahwa, editor and founder of Medianama and a keen observer of India's digital space. "But the more they use it, the more the likelihood that they'll stop seeing it as the devil's workshop."
Internet 1-on-1
That is exactly what Naman Pugalia, Google's 25-year-old public policy and government affairs analyst set out to do towards the end of 2011. "We realised that there was clearly not enough engagement happening and politicians perspective on the Internet was incomplete," said Pugalia. "We needed to make them understand how important this medium was, and encourage them to taste it."
So, Pugalia and the rest of Google's public policy team reached out to hold intensive "Internet 1-on-1's with politicians" and make them understand what the consequence of reaching out to India's 130 million Internet users could be. "Usually, we would go with a menu of various options," Pugalia added. Politicians or organisations could broadly choose to use Google platforms for either information dissemination or engagement with their constituency online.
One man who needed little convincing was Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who became the first Indian politician to debut on Google+ Hangouts in September 2012, watched on YouTube by some 82,000 people across 116 countries. "In a sense, he was a low-hanging fruit," said Pugalia, "Hangouts lend themselves easily to politicians who have a strong online presence."
Budget Beginning
Finance Minister P Chidambaram doesn't quite fit that profile. But that wasn't the only reason why many were taken aback when it was announced that the lawyer-turned-politician would appear on Google+ Hangouts after delivering his Budget in March. The Budget is also an occasion that is treated with unusual seriousness within government, and it was unusual for the finance minister to discuss and deconstruct it online. "It took almost six months to get it organised," said Pugalia, "He (Chidambaram) was interested in it, but that he (eventually) did it was as much a surprise to us as to others. This was the first time a member of the (Union) Cabinet was doing it." Soon after, the Planning Commission was on Hangouts, too. And by the end of the month, Sibal completed his turnaround on how the Internet should be dealt with at Google's Big Tent Activate Summit. Is Google the only one playing this game?
"All these big Internet firms are in it, especially Facebook, which faces the biggest risk from the privacy dimension and also because it's a single service firm," said an analyst, requesting anonymity. "Each company has their own plan, but it's true, Google's may be the most visible."
Nonetheless, Google recently entered into new controversy. Two years after its 'Street View' project was blocked in Bangalore by the local administration, Google 'Mapathon 2013', a user-driven project to enhance maps, is now being investigated by authorities after a complaint by the Survey of India. The Bharatiya Janata Party has sought a detailed debate on it and has promised to raise the issue when Parliament reconvenes later this month. Will Google's charm offensive deliver, again?
