As the buzz around renaming India to ‘Bharat‘ continues, Google Maps has reportedly made an update. As per media reports, Google Maps is now showing “Bharat” as a “Country in South Asia” alongside the Indian flag digital code.
This comes as India, host of the recently held G20 Summit in September, in its official communications used “President of Bharat” instead of the conventional “President of India.” Earlier, WION Data Lab also explained what’s the price tag of a national rebrand from India to ‘Bharat’.
Local media reports said that whether you’re using Google Maps in Hindi or English, searching for “Bharat” will give you similar results as searching for “India.” A search with both terms leads to Google Maps referring to India as a “Country in South Asia”.
The search yields results that allow Google Maps users to access the official Indian map.
The text descriptions remain consistent in both Hindi and English languages on Google Maps.
This development in Google Maps aligns with the central government’s gradual shift towards using “Bharat” in official communications. But it is not just Google Maps, other Google products also appear to follow suit with the renaming.
Other Google products, including Search, Translator, and News, now offer users the option to use both “Bharat” and “India” to obtain similar results.
No official confirmation
It must be noted that Google has not officially confirmed this change. It is just that a simple search revealed that there may have been background modifications by Google.
The report of Google adapting to the stance of the Indian government comes as a panel of the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) of India has recommended replacing the word ‘India’ with ‘Bharat’ in all school textbooks.
As per Article(1) of the Indian Constitution the name of the country is mentioned as “India, that is Bharat shall be a Union of States.”
Read More: Weather update: IMD predicts heavy rainfall in THESE states till November 1
On media reports about changing the name of India to Bharat in all NCERT textbooks, NCERT said “that since the development of new syllabus and textbooks is in the process and for that purpose various Curricular Area Groups of domain experts are being notified by the NCERT. So, it is too premature to comment on the news being flashed in the media on the concerned issue.”
