A little Silicon Valley is in the making in Goa

Goa is rolling with the times even as it straddles the old. This is giving it many dimensions, which has stretched its ‘sun, sand and sea’ to ‘spirituality and software’.

Here, the odd one out is software. Nonetheless, but it is snugly fitting into Goa’s scheme of things. Or so it may seem, with the buzz around Information Technology (IT), Start-ups and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the coastal State getting louder.    

This was evident at the tiny State’s first AI conference – Build with AI with Google Developers – early this week when a huge number of students, developers from the IT sector, academicians and experts gathered to share experiences with each other.

And, the talks at the event went beyond the jargon taffy as real issues relating to funding, sustainability, digital infrastructure, data security and accuracy were discussed.

Three persons, who were instrumental in helming it, were Prajyot Mainkar, CEO & Founder of Sofueled; Goa IT Minister Rohan Khaunte; and Siddharth Prakash, head of product strategy in emerging markets at Google Cloud.

“I think, this is not just an event; it's a big step forward in our journey towards becoming a technology-driven State,” said the minister.

“Whether in the drone, or any other area, you have many people sitting here and working out of Goa (on tech solutions and AI). For that, we are creating an ecosystem with initiatives such as the Design Village and Hackathon (by the month-end) on governance, environment, healthcare, where youth have to find solutions with AI and AI-driven products,” he added.

Khaunte informed that Goa currently has “roughly” 543 startups, which are “registered and Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT)-certified”. Data put out by the Central government reveals that, as on June 30, 2024, there were around 1.4 lakh DPIIT-recognised start-ups in the country.

The minister envisions Goa becoming India’s critical centre of innovation and creativity for IT developers and start-ups. He believes such initiatives are no longer restricted to the US Silicon Valley.

“There was a time when we spoke about Silicon Valley as a place where everybody had to go and work (on IT innovations). Today, you can sit here (Goa). You can make a product here (Goa). You can sell it somewhere else. You can do things over here (Goa) and your ideas can work anywhere in the world,” he goaded the audience, assembled at the conference to take up the challenge to build futuristic tech products from Goa.

Acknowledging the disruptive nature of AI, he said the only way to beat its onslaught was by embracing it and reskilling the capabilities of youth so that they can grab opportunities arising from it.

Google’s Prakash believes his tech company had mastered the art of operating “planet-scale” digital infrastructure for which IT application developers can create products with global reach. He urged developers to build AI products from Goa that can enable global scale for its users. 

“Today's event is ‘build with AI’ but I want to extend that to ‘build with AI in Goa for Bharat’. So that's basically what you should be taking away (from this conference). At Google, we know how to run planet-scale infrastructure. We are the only company in the world which has more than 10 applications (apps) with billion-plus users,” he asserted.

The Google executive said his company was striving to make organisations digitally agile to tap opportunity and scale through AI. “Our ambition is to accelerate every organisation's ability to digitally transform its business and the industry, at large,” he said.

According to him, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and AI would be crucial in revolutionising the way businesses operate around the world. DPI is like a digital highway democratising the digital ecosystem by providing safe and seamless exchange between people, businesses, and governments for services and economic opportunities.

One of the successful examples of India’s DPI was UPI because of its interoperability that enabled seamless transaction between different payment apps.

Prakash informed that a new protocol – Beckn – is being developed to extend interoperability across apps for breaking the silos in the marketplace.

This would be transformative for the startups in scaling up their market. Google’s ‘DPI in a box’ is an initiative that simplifies deployment of DPI for creation of scalable tech solution.

Prakash said tech solutions like Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) are set to change the digital commerce game for start-ups, providing tools to small merchants for online sale and control over pricing of their wares.   

He encouraged developers to adopt these tools to build AI solutions for Goa’s businesses and services. He pointed out the two verticals – agriculture and tourism – which were low-hanging fruit in the State.

“I would recommend focusing on agriculture (in Goa), where you can think about how to transform the lives of farmers in the State. Tourism is also a massive opportunity in Goa,” he said.

Google’s emerging markets’ head said AI could be useful in decentralising the market network, of which any player – small or big – can become a part of. This, he believes, could do away with commissions on travel products, making tourism players more price competitive and help consumers get better deals.

An important aspect of pushing AI or any other tech-driven venture in the State is funding. Prajyot Mainkar, CEO & Founder of homegrown, Sofueled, said access to funding for start-ups had dramatically improved from the times when entrepreneurial ideas prematurely died due to lack of funding.

“Today, we, in fact, have a start-up clinic where the access point to the government (funding) is now simpler,” he said.

“We had 1,300 registrations (for seed funding start-up ideas), of which we have shortlisted 500. That shows the potential and interest of students. That is what we are tapping on,” Mainkar added.

And, as tomorrow’s entrepreneurs line up to raise capital for their ventures, Goa is being hit by the Silicon Valley surf.