Google to host hackathon to promote Indian language apps

Google India will host a two-day Hackathon and workshop in Bangalore focused on designing and creating Android applications in Indian languages.

The event will take place on 21st and 22nd February, 2014. Nearly 100 developers are participating in this event that is open to both amateur and professional developers.

It aims to promote regional languages and develop applications for Internet users who communicate and understand only their native language with a view to encouraging more users to come online.

"The next 300 million Internet users in India won’t use English. That’s why we’re working on enabling the Internet in Indian languages, which is the key to driving growth. We are seeing great interest from users in small towns across India, because people are becoming aware of the value of the Internet even in small towns and villages. This Hackathon will help organizations prepare for the coming growth in the Indian language Internet,” said Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Google India on the launch of the initiative.

At the event, Google will host workshops covering the technical process of enabling apps in Indian languages and monetisation potential of language apps. The sessions will also cover business aspects of enabling existing android applications in multiple languages and how that can further the reach and monetisation potential of the apps for the developers.

The objective of the sessions is to enable better understanding of the growing Internet user base in India and the opportunity it represents for the developers and help them to build valuable skills.