#WeArePlay I Meet people making apps and games across India

Millions of people from all over the world come to Google Play every month, discovering apps and games created by companies from across India. #WeArePlay India celebrates the community of people behind these businesses.

Each person creating an app or game has a different story to tell. Some have been coders since childhood, others are newbies who got into tech later in life. Some are based in busy cities, others in smaller towns. No matter who they are or how different their story is, they all have one thing in common - the passion to transform an idea into a business impacting people all over the world.

Now, and over the coming months, #WeArePlay India spotlights the people behind apps and games - sharing stories of how they started growing their business on Google Play. From a mental health support platform, to an enterprise transforming the Indian agricultural industry.

Dr Amit and Neha are helping people their improve mental health

Throughout his career in psychiatry, Amit was struck and frustrated by the lack of early access to mental health services. So he created Amaha Health in 2016, and a few years later was joined by Neha — an entrepreneur with lived experience of mental health. The platform, which now has over 4.4 million downloads, helps people find self-care programs and join anonymized community support groups. They can also access resources 24/7 whenever they need to feel and stay better - including support from qualified therapists and psychiatrists if they're based in India. Dr Amit mentions “we want to build a better solution for individuals so they can have continuous, easily accessible, evidence based support. That’s a big driver for us”.

Ronak is bringing joy to millions through interactive games

Ronak had so much fun playing multiplayer games with his friends at college that he grew inspired to develop his own. He swiftly learnt to programme and, at the age of 17, partnered up with software veterans Chirag and Somish to create Vasundhara Game Studios and release over 40 games. His main focus across all his projects is encouraging interaction between players for maximum fun. Their most popular title, Car Racing on Impossible Track, features extreme tracks for rip-roaring racing. Next Ronak has a number of new games in the pipeline to share with the world, as he mentions “distributing our games on Google Play helps us to reach a global audience interested in mobile gaming".

Aneesha, Puneet and Vatsala are preserving Indian languages

At 17, Aneesha emigrated to Canada and met many second generation Indians who struggled to connect to their heritage and native tongue. This sparked the idea for Language Curry: an app, with now over 2.3 million downloads, for learning Indian regional languages like Sanskrit and Tamil, and delving into the rich culture around them. Her friends and co-founders Puneet and Vatsala shared this passion, with Vatsala losing knowledge of her own mother tongue when she moved to another state as a child. In the future, they hope to add more languages, personalize the lessons based on each person's intent and expand the cultural content. Aneesha mentions, “our goal has always been to take India and Indian languages globally and to help promote and preserve Indian heritage”.

Sai and Siddharth are transforming Indian agriculture

Sai and Siddharth first met working on a university project to build a robot that could climb trees and pluck coconuts for farmers. Later, spurred on by Sai’s own family business in farming, the couple decided to make solutions for the agricultural industry. Observing how farmers didn’t use scientific techniques to improve yields, they created BharatAgri. The app, which has over 3.9 million downloads, offers soil and water testing, weather forecasting and other technologies to help farmers get the most from their crops. They also recently launched a marketplace feature where people can buy fertilizers and pesticides. Sai mentions “what inspires us is bringing even a small change in the agricultural industry that will have the maximum impact on the Indian economy. We have the opportunity to bring a high number of people out of poverty.”

Check out all the stories from India and stay tuned for more coming soon.