NE BUSINESS BUREAU
WASHINGTON, JUNE 24
Internet giant Google is investing USD 10 billion in India’s digitisation fund, its CEO Sundar Pichai has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a step that will recognise India’s leadership on fintech and will support small and large businesses in India, the US and around the world.
- Sundar Pichai met Prime Minister Modi on Friday and also announced the opening of Google’s global fintech operation centre in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar.
- Prime Minister invites Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI); fintech; cybersecurity products & services; as well as mobile device manufacturing in India.
- Prime Minister and Pichai also discuss collaboration between Google and academic institutions in India to promote R&D and skill development
- It has also partnered with IIT Madras to establish a multidisciplinary Center for Responsible AI.
Great to join students + policy leaders in DC to announce funding for cybersecurity clinics across the US. These clinics give students hands-on experience in cybersecurity by providing free services to protect critical infrastructure in their communities. https://t.co/J7b8NewtP4
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) June 22, 2023
Pichai met Prime Minister Modi on Friday and also announced the opening of Google’s global fintech operation centre in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar.
Prime Minister invited Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI); fintech; cybersecurity products & services; as well as mobile device manufacturing in India.
Prime Minister and Pichai also discussed collaboration between Google and academic institutions in India to promote R&D and skill development.
“It was an honour to meet Prime Minister Modi during the historic visit to the US. We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing USD 10 billion in India’s digitisation fund,” Pichai said.
“We are announcing the opening of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT City, Gujarat. PM’s vision for Digital India was way ahead of his time I now see it as a blueprint that other countries are looking to do,” he added.
“Google today announced that it will open a Google Fintech Global Operations Center in GIFT City, Gujarat, with teams working on specialised operations supporting GPay and other product operations at Google,” a Google spokesperson said.
“This recognises India’s leadership on fintech and will support small and large businesses in India, the US and around the world,” the spokesperson said after the meeting between Pichai and the Prime Minister.
Google has been operating in India since 2004, with offices in five key cities across the country with thousands of talented employees. We currently have offices in Bangalore (Bengaluru), Hyderabad, Gurgaon – Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune, the spokesperson said.
In 2020, deepening its commitment to India and a reflection of its confidence in India’s growing role in the global technology arena, Google announced the Google for India Digitisation fund, a commitment to invest USD 10 billion (approximately ₹ 75,000 crores) focussing on four areas.
First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language. Second, building new services that are relevant to India’s unique needs. Third, empowering businesses as they embark on digital transformation. Fourth, leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for social good.
Towards the end of last year, Google also announced support for Early Stage Startups with a particular focus on women-led startups under the India Digitisation fund.
Using AI to further India’s digital transformation journey, Google AI Research Center in Bengaluru is building models to support over 100 Indian languages, and working with the Indian Institute of Science to support open sourcing of speech data through India’s Bhashini project.
It has also partnered with IIT Madras to establish a multidisciplinary Center for Responsible AI.
With a focus to support businesses and governments to run on Cloud, Google Cloud has been playing a pivotal role in bringing innovative cloud technologies to India and being a part of India’s digital transformation journey.
