Google announces second edition of GNI Indian Languages Program

Google has announced the second edition of the Google News Initiative Indian Languages Program, which aims to promote and enhance content in 9 different Indian languages.

GNI ILP | Indian Languages program | Google

The first edition was announced in June 2023. (Image Source: Google)

In June 2023, Google News Initiative launched the Indian Languages Program to support local news publications in India. To empower publications that deliver news in local languages, Google said it plans to offer technical support, access to training, funding to improve digital operations and increase the reach of these publications.

Google says the first edition helped modernise the online presence of Indian language news publishers and “had more than 300 news publishers, spanning 9 Indian languages, participating and benefiting from the program.” Now, the tech giant has announced the second edition of the GNI Indian Languages Program in partnership with FICCI and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to promote more Indic languages.

As part of GNI ILP 2.0, the tech giant says it will continue to collaborate with news publishers to improve site performance, content formats, optimisation and native apps. The company is also introducing News Consumer Insights and Real-Time Content Insights dashboards so publications can analyse audience and data-driven content strategies in real-time.

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With support for third-party cookies coming to an end, the tech giant says it will help minimise the impact on “website functionality and advertising”. The search engine giant also plans to use Google Cloud to optimise content by automatically categorising and tagging content, which it says will help publications reach a wider audience.

Google News Initiative’s Indian Languages Program 2.0 will be delivered in nine languages and consists of eight sessions featuring guest speakers, product-focused training and success stories. The company also plans to offer personalised assessment and guidance for news publishers and dedicated technical support for select publications. The application window for GNI ILP 2.0 is open until June 16, 2024.