Google has massive plans for India in 2016

Google is ramping up its efforts to connect the next 1 billion users with a massive play in India in 2016, CEO Sundar Pichai said at a Google in India event Wednesday. The move will include partnerships with local governments as well as expansions to its Project Loon initiative.

India's internet base is growing largely due to the rapid adoption of smartphones. It's estimated that India's internet users will grow from 350 million in June of this year to over 400 million by year's end, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India. But this still leaves two third's of India's 1.2 billion people unconnected, presenting a major opportunity for companies like Google to provide that coverage and monetize mobile phone users through ads and data plans.

If all goes as planned, Pichai expects India to have more Android users than the US by 2016. Here are some of the ways Google plans on achieving this.

Google will partner with the Indian government to train 2 million developers. For example, one of the biggest hurdles Google must overcome is the large number of different languages spoken across the country. By training local developers to address this issue, Google will go a long way in helping the company's apps gain traction, driving downloads and possibly in-app purchases.

Google will install Wi-Fi hotspots in 100 train stations across India in 2016, providing access to 10 million users who ride the railway everyday. Indian Railways — one of Google's partners in this endeavor — is one of the largest railway networks in the world, making Google's Wi-Fi network the largest in India and among the largest in the world.

Google will expand its Project Loon initiative to cover 300,000 Indian villages in 2016. Project Loon uses large balloons as floating cell towers to bring high speed LTE internet to remote regions that lack infrastructure.

Google is not the only company investing in connecting users in emerging markets. Facebook is expanding internet access using drones, satellites, and lasers as a part of its Internet.org initiative. And OneWeb — partnered with Airbus — stated that it is working on building a global communications system through satellites that will provide internet access worldwide by 2019.

Laurie-Beaver