Author Archives: A Googler

Helping Indian startups drive global app innovations with MeitY Startup Hub




India is one of the fastest-growing app markets in the world. Millions of Indians are increasingly relying on mobile apps to meet their core needs - be it learning a new skill, finding a job, achieving their health and fitness goals, or reading the latest news in their chosen language. India’s vibrant ecosystem of startups and developers is poised to harness this momentum and bring more exciting and innovative apps and services to the Indian user community.   


The startup and developer ecosystem in India has been a positive force for good, inspiring the next generation of innovators, bringing useful services to Indian users, and helping address important and topical issues that matter most to them. Now these innovators are ready to build apps that will similarly resonate in the global market. With access to more than 2.5 billion active users in 190+ countries, Google Play enables these entrepreneurs to scale and build truly global businesses.


Google is therefore very pleased to announce a partnership with the MeitY Startup Hub, an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).  Together, we will launch the Appscale Academy, a program to identify and support the most promising Indian startups and help them grow into successful global businesses.  We are excited to see new innovations across various domains including gaming, healthcare, fintech, edtech, social impact and so much more.




Click to view video




It is particularly inspiring to see startup ecosystems being built across various parts of the country, and entrepreneurs develop solutions that are truly unique to India’s diverse needs. To support these uniquely Indian innovations, the Appscale Academy will have a special focus on  emerging startups from Tier II and Tier III cities of India.


We are pleased to be partnering with the MeitY Startup Hub to tap into the vibrant Indian startup ecosystem and foster sustainable and scalable local and global businesses. We are excited to welcome the inaugural cohort of 100 startups and embark on this journey with them.


Key program details for applicants


  • A 6-month program to train early to mid-stage Indian startups on all aspects of building successful apps for the global market, including UX design, business model and monetization strategies, international expansion best practices, and data safety and security practices.

  • 100 startups will get selected based on defined criteria by a panel of industry experts, members of MeitY Startup Hub, and Google Play.

  • The selected startups have access to virtual instructor-led webinars, self-learning material, and mentorship sessions with leading local and global industry leaders.  Many will get an opportunity to pitch to leading venture capitalists. 

  • To apply and for more details on the program, check out g.co/play/asa. Applications will be accepted starting today until 15th December 2021.   


Posted by Purnima Kochikar, Vice President, Play Partnerships, Google

Badshah’s #JugnuChallenge kicks off today, only on YouTube Shorts



Universal Music Group (UMG) and YouTube, today, announced the launch of an exciting global dance challenge,  #JugnuChallenge with Indian music superstar Badshah, happening only on YouTube Shorts. 


Starting from 7 PM IST on Tuesday, 26 October, Badshah is inviting people to dance along with him to his catchy new track, ‘Jugnu’. 


The challenge encourages fans to make a 15-second Shorts video right from the YouTube mobile app, recreating Badshah’s dance moves with their own unique, creative style. The Jugnu Challenge, set to a foot-tapping soundtrack, is set to light up this festive season, inspiring fans to share their unique Shorts creations with one another. 


As part of the challenge, Badshah will be curating and spotlighting some of his favorite Shorts in a compilation video. For their creations to be considered, participants are encouraged to use the Jugnu track and hashtags #JugnuChallenge and #YouTubeShorts.* 



HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE CHALLENGE ON YOUTUBE SHORTS


For dance challenge inspiration, get a closer look at the “Jugnu” choreography by watching Badshah’s latest YouTube Shorts on desktop HERE and on the mobile app HERE.


Creating a Short for the Jugnu Challenge only takes 15 seconds. 


All that is needed to participate in this challenge is a smartphone and the Shorts camera built right in the YouTube mobile app. With the help of YouTube’s Shorts creation tools, anyone can easily recreate the “Jugnu” moves with their own style by following these simple steps on the YouTube mobile app:

  • Tap the “( + ) Create Icon” on the bottom navigation bar and select "Create a Short”.

  • Tap the “Add Music'' button and select Badshah’s “Jugnu.” The music will be queued up perfectly to 15 seconds without having to do anything else.

  • Hold the “Capture” button (red circle) to record your Short video clip. 

  • Tap “Done” followed by “Next” to add video details. Be sure to include hashtags #JugnuChallenge and #Shorts

  • Hit “Upload” and you are good to go! 


For more detailed instructions on how to create a YouTube Short on a computer, Android, iPhone or iPad please see here and for video instructions on how to create a short, watch here. 


The Jugnu Challenge starts today, Tuesday, October 26 at 7 PM IST through Sunday, November 07 at 11.59 PM IST. During this time, anyone with access to Shorts can participate in the challenge. 


We hope to see your unique spin on Badshah’s ‘Jugnu’ moves on YouTube Shorts and don’t forget to use hashtags #JugnuChallenge and #Shorts! 


*Posting a Short does not guarantee selection. Your Short will not be used in this manner without your permission*


Posted by Pawan Agarwal, Director - Music Partnerships (India & South Asia), YouTube

Evolving our business model to address developer needs

When we started Android and Google Play more than a decade ago, we made a bet that a free and open mobile ecosystem could compete with the proprietary walled gardens that dominated the industry. It wasn’t yet clear what kinds of businesses would move to mobile or what apps would be successful. To keep things simple, we went with an easy-to-understand business model: The vast majority of developers could distribute their apps on Google Play for free (currently 97% do so at no charge). For the developers who offered a paid app or sold in-app digital goods (currently just 3% of developers), the flat service fee was 30%. This model helped apps to become one of the fastest-growing software segments. And instead of charging licensing fees for our OS, our service fee allowed us to continually invest in Android and Play while making them available for free to device makers all over the world.

The creativity and innovation from developers around the world spurred amazing new app experiences we could have never imagined when we first introduced Android. As the ecosystem evolved, a wider range of business models emerged to support these different types of apps. We've made important changes along the way, including moving beyond a “one size fits all” service fee model to ensure all types of businesses can be successful. Instead of a single service fee, we now have multiple programs designed to support and encourage our diverse app ecosystem.


The result is that 99% of developers qualify for a service fee of 15% or less. And after learning from and listening to developers across many industries and regions, including developers like Anghami, AWA, Bumble, Calm, Duolingo, KADOKAWA, KKBOX, PicsArt, and Smule, we're announcing additional changes to further support our ecosystem of partners and help them build sustainable businesses, and ensure Play continues to lead in the mobile app ecosystem.



Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%


Digital subscriptions have become one of the fastest growing models for developers but we know that subscription businesses face specific challenges in customer acquisition and retention. We’ve worked with our partners in dating, fitness, education and other sectors to understand the nuances of their businesses. Our current service fee drops from 30% to 15% after 12 months of a recurring subscription. But we’ve heard that customer churn makes it challenging for subscription businesses to benefit from that reduced rate. So, we’re simplifying things to ensure they can.



To help support the specific needs of developers offering subscriptions, starting on January 1, 2022, we're decreasing the service fee for all subscriptions on Google Play from 30% to 15%, starting from day one.



For developers offering subscriptions, this means that first-year subscription fees will be cut in half. We’ve already gotten positive feedback from our developer partners on this change:

“Our partnership with Google has been a powerful one for our business, helping us to scale and ultimately playing a key role in advancing our mission to empower women globally. The pricing change they’ve announced will allow us to better invest in our products and further empower users to confidently connect online.”

– Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO, Bumble Inc.



"Just as every person learns in different ways, every developer is different as well. We're excited to see Google continuing to collaborate with the ecosystem to find models that work for both the developer and platform. This reduction in subscription fees will help Duolingo accelerate our mission of universally available language learning."

- Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo.

Going further with cross platform experiences

While apps remain incredibly important for mobile phones, great services must now also span TVs, cars, watches, tablets and more. And we recognize that developers need to invest in building for those platforms now more than ever.



Earlier this year we launched the Play Media Experience program to encourage video, audio and book developers alike to help grow the Android platform by building amazing cross-device experiences. This helped developers invest in these multi-screen experiences with a service fee as low as 15%.



Today, we’re also making changes to the service fee in the Media Experience program, to better accommodate differences in these categories. Ebooks and on-demand music streaming services, where content costs account for the majority of sales, will now be eligible for a service fee as low as 10%. The new rates recognize industry economics of media content verticals and make Google Play work better for developers and the communities of artists, musicians and authors they represent. You can go here for more information.



We will continue to engage with developers to understand their challenges and opportunities — and how we can best support them in building sustainable businesses. It’s a theme that will be front and center at the Android Developer Summit on October 27-28, where you’ll hear more about our latest tools, application programming interfaces (APIs) and technologies designed to help developers be more productive and create better apps.



If you’re looking for more information about Google Play and its service fees, we've answered some common questions here.



Posted by Sameer Samat, Vice President, Product Management

 

 

Evolving our business model to address developer needs

When we started Android and Google Play more than a decade ago, we made a bet that a free and open mobile ecosystem could compete with the proprietary walled gardens that dominated the industry. It wasn’t yet clear what kinds of businesses would move to mobile or what apps would be successful. To keep things simple, we went with an easy-to-understand business model: The vast majority of developers could distribute their apps on Google Play for free (currently 97% do so at no charge). For the developers who offered a paid app or sold in-app digital goods (currently just 3% of developers), the flat service fee was 30%. This model helped apps to become one of the fastest-growing software segments. And instead of charging licensing fees for our OS, our service fee allowed us to continually invest in Android and Play while making them available for free to device makers all over the world.

The creativity and innovation from developers around the world spurred amazing new app experiences we could have never imagined when we first introduced Android. As the ecosystem evolved, a wider range of business models emerged to support these different types of apps. We've made important changes along the way, including moving beyond a “one size fits all” service fee model to ensure all types of businesses can be successful. Instead of a single service fee, we now have multiple programs designed to support and encourage our diverse app ecosystem.


The result is that 99% of developers qualify for a service fee of 15% or less. And after learning from and listening to developers across many industries and regions, including developers like Anghami, AWA, Bumble, Calm, Duolingo, KADOKAWA, KKBOX, PicsArt, and Smule, we're announcing additional changes to further support our ecosystem of partners and help them build sustainable businesses, and ensure Play continues to lead in the mobile app ecosystem.



Decreasing service fees on subscriptions to 15%


Digital subscriptions have become one of the fastest growing models for developers but we know that subscription businesses face specific challenges in customer acquisition and retention. We’ve worked with our partners in dating, fitness, education and other sectors to understand the nuances of their businesses. Our current service fee drops from 30% to 15% after 12 months of a recurring subscription. But we’ve heard that customer churn makes it challenging for subscription businesses to benefit from that reduced rate. So, we’re simplifying things to ensure they can.



To help support the specific needs of developers offering subscriptions, starting on January 1, 2022, we're decreasing the service fee for all subscriptions on Google Play from 30% to 15%, starting from day one.



For developers offering subscriptions, this means that first-year subscription fees will be cut in half. We’ve already gotten positive feedback from our developer partners on this change:

“Our partnership with Google has been a powerful one for our business, helping us to scale and ultimately playing a key role in advancing our mission to empower women globally. The pricing change they’ve announced will allow us to better invest in our products and further empower users to confidently connect online.”

– Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder and CEO, Bumble Inc.



"Just as every person learns in different ways, every developer is different as well. We're excited to see Google continuing to collaborate with the ecosystem to find models that work for both the developer and platform. This reduction in subscription fees will help Duolingo accelerate our mission of universally available language learning."

- Luis von Ahn, Co-Founder and CEO of Duolingo.

Going further with cross platform experiences

While apps remain incredibly important for mobile phones, great services must now also span TVs, cars, watches, tablets and more. And we recognize that developers need to invest in building for those platforms now more than ever.



Earlier this year we launched the Play Media Experience program to encourage video, audio and book developers alike to help grow the Android platform by building amazing cross-device experiences. This helped developers invest in these multi-screen experiences with a service fee as low as 15%.



Today, we’re also making changes to the service fee in the Media Experience program, to better accommodate differences in these categories. Ebooks and on-demand music streaming services, where content costs account for the majority of sales, will now be eligible for a service fee as low as 10%. The new rates recognize industry economics of media content verticals and make Google Play work better for developers and the communities of artists, musicians and authors they represent. You can go here for more information.



We will continue to engage with developers to understand their challenges and opportunities — and how we can best support them in building sustainable businesses. It’s a theme that will be front and center at the Android Developer Summit on October 27-28, where you’ll hear more about our latest tools, application programming interfaces (APIs) and technologies designed to help developers be more productive and create better apps.



If you’re looking for more information about Google Play and its service fees, we've answered some common questions here.



Posted by Sameer Samat, Vice President, Product Management

 

 

Fostering an open and inclusive community with our creators


For millions of Indians, YouTube is woven into the fabric of everyday life, whether it is to laugh, learn, or be inspired by transformative stories. YouTube is a vibrant destination for people to find inspiring content fuelled by the extraordinary diversity that our creators represent across geographies, demographics, identities and cultures. This diversity is our superpower and we not only want to promote it but supercharge it. 


As we continue to foster and grow our ecosystem, we remain cognizant of and committed to the responsibility that comes with being a platform that values openness. Our community guidelines offer guardrails for our creators for content on YouTube. And, we are extending our efforts with the launch of #CreateWithCare, our latest initiative in India that partners with leading creators to preserve and promote a diverse, inclusive community on YouTube that can drive responsible growth. #CreateWithCare aligns with our mission to empower creators from all backgrounds, communities, languages, and genders, including many that may be under-represented, to find their voice, an audience and cultivate a sense of belonging.

 

Technical Guruji, Kabita's Kitchen, Prajakta Koli, Madan Gowri, My Village Show, Bhadipa, Kushiyagi Ramya, Vishal Langthasa, Wonder Munna, Salu Kitchen among 30 leading creators across 8 languages to take the #CreateWithCare pledge


Today, at our Creator Camp event, a platform that serves as a learning forum for emerging creators to gain from the community of creators and YouTube product experts, we showcased the #CreateWithCare Pledge. The pledge unites popular creators from all corners of India in their endeavor to create content more thoughtfully by educating themselves about different cultures and histories, being respectful of diverse points of views and facilitating meaningful, open engagements among their communities. With #CreateWithCare, we want to help and inspire all our creators, even those who may just be starting their journey on YouTube, to approach content creation with a lens of responsibility.


Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission of Women in India, took to the stage to reiterate the transformative role technology plays in empowering women by enhancing access to learning and employment opportunities, extending her encouragement to our creator community to create content responsibly and inclusively. Creators also had the opportunity to learn from V R Ferose, founder of India Inclusion Foundation, as he enumerated a few ways in which creators could be more empathetic in representing persons with disabilities in their content. 


Satya Raghavan, Director, YouTube Partnerships, Rekha Sharma, Chairperson, National Commission for Women, and V R Ferose, Founder - India Inclusion Foundation speak at Creator Camp 


We are incredibly proud of our growing cohort of creators like Ranveer Allahbadia, who today has his own talent management and brand marketing agency, or My Village Show, whose unique take on village comedy birthed a whole new genre on YouTube, who have used their distinctive, authentic voices to build not only engaged communities but also successful business ventures. And, we will continue to safeguard our community of viewers and creators alike, by making everyone feel welcome and heard on our platform. 


Our #CreateWithCare campaign will continue to bring together prolific creators to create useful resources and discuss how to be respectful of diversity as they create content that has the power to impact lives. Stay tuned to YouTube Creators India for more on #CreateWithCare.


Posted by Satya Raghavan, Director, YouTube Partnerships

Updating our ads and monetization policies on climate change

Working closely with outside experts, we regularly review and update our ads and monetization policies to help ensure a brand-safe environment for our advertising partners and to better protect users from unreliable claims, such as fake medical cures or anti-vaccine advocacy.


Addressing climate change denial

In recent years, we've heard directly from a growing number of our advertising and publisher partners who have expressed concerns about ads that run alongside or promote inaccurate claims about climate change. Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content. And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.  


That’s why today, we’re announcing a new monetization policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators that will prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change. This includes content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims denying that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims denying that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change.


When evaluating content against this new policy, we’ll look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim. We will also continue to allow ads and monetization on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, the varying impacts of climate change, new research and more.


In creating this policy and its parameters, we’ve consulted authoritative sources on the topic of climate science, including experts who have contributed to United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports. As is the case for many of our policies, we’ll use a combination of automated tools and human review to enforce this policy against violating publisher content, Google-served ads, and YouTube videos that are monetizing via YouTube’s Partner Program. We’ll begin enforcing this policy next month.


This new policy not only will help us strengthen the integrity of our advertising ecosystem, but also it aligns strongly with the work we’ve done as a company over the past two decades to promote sustainability and confront climate change head-on.


Posted by The Google Ads team

Making sign-in safer and more convenient

For most of us, passwords are the first line of defense for our digital lives. However, managing a set of strong passwords isn’t always convenient, which leads many people to look for  shortcuts (i.e. dog’s name + birthday) or to neglect password best practices altogether, which opens them up to online risks. At Google, we protect our users with products that are secure by default – it’s how we keep more people safe online than anyone else in the world. 


As we celebrate Cybersecurity Awareness Month, we’d like to share all the ways we are making your sign-in safer: 


Making password sign-in seamless and safe


Everyday, Google checks the security of 1 billion passwords to protect your accounts from being hacked. Google’s Password Manager, built directly into Chrome, Android and the Google App, uses the latest security technology to keep your passwords safe across all the sites and apps you use. It makes it easier to create and use strong and unique passwords on all your devices, without the need to remember or repeat each one.

 

On iOS you can select Chrome to autofill saved passwords in other apps, too. That means your sign-in experience goes from remembering and typing in a password on each individual site to literally one tap.  And soon, you will be able to take advantage of Chrome’s strong password generation feature for any iOS app, similar to how Autofill with Google works on Android today.  


We're also rolling out a feature in the Google app that allows you to access all of the passwords you've saved in Google Password Manager right from the Google app menu. These enhancements are designed to make your password experience easier and safer—not just on Google, but across the web.


Getting people enrolled in 2SV  


In addition to passwords, we know that having a second form of authentication dramatically decreases an attacker’s chance of gaining access to an account. For years, Google has been at the forefront of innovation in two-step verification (2SV), one of the most reliable ways to prevent unauthorized access to accounts and networks. 2SV is strongest when it combines both "something you know" (like a password) and "something you have" (like your phone or a security key).


2SV has been core to Google’s own security practices and today we make it seamless for our users with a Google prompt, which requires a simple tap on your mobile device to prove it’s really you trying to sign in. And because we know the best way to keep our users safe is to turn on our security protections by default, we have started to automatically configure our users’ accounts into a more secure state. By the end of 2021, we plan to  auto-enroll an additional 150 million Google users in 2SV and require  2 million YouTube creators to turn it on.

We also recognize that today’s 2SV options aren’t suitable for everyone, so we are working on technologies that provide a convenient, secure authentication experience and reduce the reliance on passwords in the long-term. Right now we are auto-enrolling Google accounts that have the proper backup mechanisms in place to make a seamless transition to 2SV. To make sure your account has the right settings in place, take our quick Security Checkup. 


Building security keys into devices 


As part of our security work, we led the invention of security keys — another form of authentication that requires you to tap your key during suspicious sign-in attempts. We know security keys provide the highest degree of sign-in security possible, that’s why we've partnered with organizations to provide free security keys to over 10,000 high risk users this year. 


To make security keys more accessible, we built the capability right into Android phones and our Google Smart Lock app on Apple devices. Today, over two billion devices around the world automatically support the strongest, most convenient 2SV technology available. 


Additional sign-in enhancements 


We recently launched One Tap and a new family of Identity APIs called Google Identity Services, which uses secure tokens, rather than passwords, to sign users into partner websites and apps, like Reddit and Pinterest. With the new Google Identity Services, we've combined Google's advanced security with easy sign in to deliver a convenient experience that also keeps users safe. These new services represent the future of authentication and protect against vulnerabilities like click-jacking, pixel tracking, and other web and app-based threats.


Ultimately, we want all of our users to have an easy, seamless sign-in experience that includes the best security protections across all of their devices and accounts. To learn more about all the ways we’re making every day safer with Google visit our Safety Center. 


Posted by Guemmy Kim, Director, Account Security and Safety and AbdelKarim Mardini, Group Product Manager, Chrome

Helping digital newsrooms accelerate their ad revenues


The last two years have been challenging across multiple dimensions for people and businesses around the world. There has never been a greater need for authoritative, timely journalism, yet many news organisations are confronting challenges as the world reorients.


Through this year, we have announced several initiatives to address the needs of startup news businesses, as well as large scale news publishers in this altered landscape. 


Today we are pleased to launch the Google News Initiative Advertising Lab to support small and medium sized news publishers producing original news for local and regional communities in India. The program, aimed at newsrooms employing up to 100 members, will focus on technical and product training of teams, as well as technical implementation to help grow the organization’s digital ad revenues. 


The program will select up to 800 small to medium news publishers and work closely with a select subset to guide them through the optimization / setup of their content management systems, websites and ad setups. 


This program is the latest in a host of GNI programs working directly with news organizations of all sizes on developing new products, programs and partnerships to help news publishers grow their businesses.


"The insights and business direction provided through the interactive sessions as part of the Google News Initiative were eye opening for the team. We are excited and thankful that a similar scaled program is being launched to further help us keep pace with the changes in the publishing landscape." - Harisha Bhat, Chief Technology Officer, Udayavani, Manipal Media Network Ltd.


Detailed eligibility criteria and applications can be accessed at the GNI Advertising Lab program website. Applications are open starting today until 5 November 2021.


Posted by Shilpa Jhunjhunwala, Head of India News Partnerships & APAC News Programs

Inviting students to participate in Code to Learn 2021

This past year-and-a-half, the pandemic has revamped the face of the education system in our country. Teacher-student interaction, pedagogy, examinations, assessments and extra curricular activities have seen many changes since March 2020. While opportunities have been lost, many new ones have also been created.


Today we are launching the eighth edition of the Code to Learn competition as an opportunity to immerse students in creative and computational thinking, along with building their skills in programming.


Students from Class 5 to 12 from any school in India are invited to register through their parents or teachers to show their coding genius using exciting tools like Scratch, App Inventor and Google AutoML. They can build games, animations, Android apps and their own machine learning applications; without writing even a single line of code!


The National Education Policy 2020 has also recommended introducing coding and computational thinking at a young age to allow early exposure to technology and create new pathways for our students. The Code to Learn competition provides an interactive platform for students to learn the basics of coding and build a stronger foundation in Computer Science. In a fun and engaging way,  we aim to inspire students to use technology to solve problems around them.




The competition registrations are now open and parents, teachers or legal guardians can register on behalf of the student on the competition website (g.co/codetolearn). Students from across India can submit their projects until 25 October 2021. We also have online resources available on our website to learn Scratch, AppInventor and Google Cloud AutoML to get started.


The contest calls for projects on Scratch or App Inventor from students of classes 5-10, and projects on Google Cloud AutoML from students of classes 9-12. We have a special AI track for class 9-12 students where they can use Google’s existing Machine Learning models to create projects with a problem statement and a data set of their choice. Students define a problem and select any open dataset or create their own (images or text) and train a pre-trained machine learning model to create their own Machine Learning application using Google Cloud AutoML.


The Code to Learn competition in 2020 witnessed an overwhelming participation of students from across the country with innovative and exciting projects. We saw interesting entries of numerous games to fight against the coronavirus, social evils, zombies and applications to promote mental health and track fitness. In the Artificial Intelligence theme, we received excellent projects where students sought to detect the right way of wearing a mask, promote tiger conservation and decode sign languages, among various other such projects.


Code to Learn is co-organized by Google Cloud, ACM India, CS Pathshala and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). ACM is the worldwide society for scientific and educational computing with an aim to advance Computer Science both as a science (through CS Pathshala) and as a profession. IISc is a renowned research-oriented university based in Bangalore, pioneering fundamental and applied research in science and engineering.


We are very excited about this year's competition, and are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that students will present to us via their projects! For more details, visit our website: g.co/codetolearn.


Posted by Divy Thakkar, Research and Education Program Manager, and Ashwani Sharma, Senior Program Manager

Inviting students to participate in Code to Learn 2021

This past year-and-a-half, the pandemic has revamped the face of the education system in our country. Teacher-student interaction, pedagogy, examinations, assessments and extra curricular activities have seen many changes since March 2020. While opportunities have been lost, many new ones have also been created.


Today we are launching the eighth edition of the Code to Learn competition as an opportunity to immerse students in creative and computational thinking, along with building their skills in programming.


Students from Class 5 to 12 from any school in India are invited to register through their parents or teachers to show their coding genius using exciting tools like Scratch, App Inventor and Google AutoML. They can build games, animations, Android apps and their own machine learning applications; without writing even a single line of code!


The National Education Policy 2020 has also recommended introducing coding and computational thinking at a young age to allow early exposure to technology and create new pathways for our students. The Code to Learn competition provides an interactive platform for students to learn the basics of coding and build a stronger foundation in Computer Science. In a fun and engaging way,  we aim to inspire students to use technology to solve problems around them.




The competition registrations are now open and parents, teachers or legal guardians can register on behalf of the student on the competition website (g.co/codetolearn). Students from across India can submit their projects until 25 October 2021. We also have online resources available on our website to learn Scratch, AppInventor and Google Cloud AutoML to get started.


The contest calls for projects on Scratch or App Inventor from students of classes 5-10, and projects on Google Cloud AutoML from students of classes 9-12. We have a special AI track for class 9-12 students where they can use Google’s existing Machine Learning models to create projects with a problem statement and a data set of their choice. Students define a problem and select any open dataset or create their own (images or text) and train a pre-trained machine learning model to create their own Machine Learning application using Google Cloud AutoML.


The Code to Learn competition in 2020 witnessed an overwhelming participation of students from across the country with innovative and exciting projects. We saw interesting entries of numerous games to fight against the coronavirus, social evils, zombies and applications to promote mental health and track fitness. In the Artificial Intelligence theme, we received excellent projects where students sought to detect the right way of wearing a mask, promote tiger conservation and decode sign languages, among various other such projects.


Code to Learn is co-organized by Google Cloud, ACM India, CS Pathshala and Indian Institute of Science (IISc). ACM is the worldwide society for scientific and educational computing with an aim to advance Computer Science both as a science (through CS Pathshala) and as a profession. IISc is a renowned research-oriented university based in Bangalore, pioneering fundamental and applied research in science and engineering.


We are very excited about this year's competition, and are looking forward to seeing the innovation and creativity that students will present to us via their projects! For more details, visit our website: g.co/codetolearn.


Posted by Divy Thakkar, Research and Education Program Manager, and Ashwani Sharma, Senior Program Manager