Google has launched Project Navlekha to expand the reach of Indian content. The project would allow Indian vernacular news publishers to get their content online. Currently, the project has publishers from Delhi and its reach would soon be expanded across India.

Speaking at the fourth edition of Google for India event here on Tuesday, Shashidhar Thakur, Vice-President, Engineering, Google Search, said there are close to 1.35 lakh newspapers in India without a digital presence and the new launch is an attempt to cater to the growing number of vernacular users in India.

During the event, the tech giant also announced a series of launches and expansion plans catering to the growing Indian vernacular users. Google Go, which has more tap options for first-time smartphone users, is now available in English and five other Indian languages -- Marathi, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Bengali. It also has a playback option for a news feed in regional languages.

Given that one in 35 users use Google search to look up meanings, features have been added so that users can now view the meaning in both English and Hindi. Marathi and Tamil are coming up as well.

Pravir Gupta, Senior Director for Engineering, Google Assistant, said, “Google Assistant usage has tripled in India since last year and further features have been added to make it relevant to Indians.”

This includes addition of Marathi language as the first of eight new Indian languages, as well as integration with local apps such as Airtel, Hello English and Where is my Train.

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