PANAJI (GOA): In continuation of Google India’s commitment to digitally empower India’s small and medium business community, the company showcased a range of programmes and products that will enable SMBs in Goa leverage the power of internet and technology to become successful.

At an event held in Panaji on Thursday, June 29, Google announced the central region winners of SMB Heroes 2017, a nationwide program to showcase and celebrate small and medium businesses that have embraced the internet to power their growth. The SMB Heroes Awards received an overwhelming response with entries from over 142 cities including cities like Hoshiarpur, Rajkot, Rajamundhry, Jamshedpur, Coimbatore, Hisar, Bhimavaram and many more.

The three businesses that emerged as central region winners under each of the categories are: Shrikant Parulekar’s Astra Concrete for Business Impact through Digital, Elsa Marie DSilva’s Safecity for Impacting Change through Digital and Shuchi Pandya’s Pipa Bella for Woman Business Leader. The winners were felicitated by Yogesh Andlay, co-chair of FICCI Start-up Committee and founder director, Nucleus Software and Manguirish Pai Raiker chairman and managing director of Brown Packaging Systems Pvt. Ltd, with Shalini Girish, director – Google Marketing Solutions. These winners are now in the running for the national finals that will be held in Delhi later this year.

Addressing an audience of local SMBs, Shalini Girish said, “Today, India has 400 million internet users, and this has had a transformational impact on how people consume information, connect with one another and find businesses. The business journeys of the SMB Heroes winners are a great testament to this, as each of them has leveraged technology to address challenges and grow their businesses.”

Team TNV