Google announces winners of SMB Heroes 2017 initiative

IANS  |  New Delhi 

As a part of its Unlocked campaign that is aimed to digitally empower small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country, Google on Wednesday announced the winners of SMB Heroes 2017.

SMB Heroes, an initiative launched earlier this year, is aimed at recognising businesses that have embraced technology to power their growth.

Farida Gupta was recognised under 'Business Impact Through Digital', Shantanu Pathak and Aditya Kulkarni for 'Impacting Change Through Digital', and Arpita Ganesh for the 'Woman Business Leader' categories respectively.

"India's story of internet adoption continues to have a transformational impact on how people are consuming information and connecting with others," Rajan Anandan, Vice President, and South-East Asia, Google, told reporters here.

"However, India's 51 million strong SMB community is not where they should be. We are committed to removing the barriers to adoption and providing them with training and tools to accelerate their growth," he added.

According to a study conducted by Google and KPMG earlier this year, SMBs lack the understanding regarding benefits of technologies and skills.

Recognising these gaps, Google launched 'Unlocked' programme to provide training to these SMBs with essential skills.

The tech giant had also launched Primer mobile app to teach marketing skills in an easy and interactive way.

The app has been downloaded over two million times.

Google had also launched 'Websites with Google My Business' -- a free tool for SMBs to create mobile optimised websites in 10 different Indian languages.

--IANS

sku/rn

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)