Google For India 2024: Big Tech Major Launches Gold-Backed Loans On Google Pay

At its flagship Google for India event, the big tech major announced the launch of gold-backed loans on Google Pay on Thursday (October 3). 

Launched in partnership with Muthoot Finance, the new offering will enable Google Pay users to avail loans in lieu of gold. “People across India can now access this credit product, with affordable interest rates and flexible usage options – delivering flexibility to the borrower, and security to the lender,” Google said. 

The move will enable Google Pay to bolster its secured lending play and allow users to avail more credit offerings on the digital payments app. 

“This collaboration opens up an avenue to mobilise their latent gold assets, at affordable interest rates and with greater flexibility to chart a course for their futures through education, business or anything else,” the big tech major said in a statement. 

Besides, the event also saw Google rolling out an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered “support guide” to “aid” users in understanding various credit products and answer related questions. As per the company, the new AI chatbot will answer user questions about repayment cycles, eligibility criteria, EMIs, among others, while “providing a link to the relevant, detailed terms and conditions”.

Additionally, the company also onboarded Aditya Birla Finance Limited to its existing portfolio of credit providers on Google Pay. The partnership will enable the non-banking financial service company to offer its credit products to users on the Google Pay platform. 

Beyond fintech, the Google for India event also saw Google launch a slew of new products ranging from AI-powered offerings to “DPI In a box”.

What’s DPI In A Box?

At the glitzy event, the big tech juggernaut said that Google Cloud will partner with Nandan Nilekani-led non-profit EkStep Foundation to create “DPI in a box” to help export India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) stack to other nations. 

The plug-and-play offering, based on open architecture, will encompass DPI products related to identity, digital credentials, and other digital public goods. Google Cloud said that “DPI in a box” can be utilised by other nations to build their own digital infrastructure.

“Google Cloud is committed to partnering with Indian businesses and innovators to harness the transformative power of AI. Through initiatives like our open-source Gemini Agent Framework and collaborations on “DPI in a box”, we’re not only advancing India’s digital landscape but also creating a blueprint for digital inclusion,” said Google Cloud India’s vice president and country managing director Bikram Singh Bedi.

Besides, the event also saw Google Cloud partnering with the Adani Group to leverage the clean energy supply from the latter’s upcoming 61.4 MW solar-wind hybrid plant in Gujarat’s Khavda to decarbonise its cloud services operations in the country.

In addition, the big tech major also rolled out an enhanced fraud protection pilot to block the installation of apps from sources such as a web browser, messaging app or file manager. Besides Hindi, Google’s AI chatbot Gemini Live will also now be rolled out in eight other Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Urdu.

Google will also establish a new Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC) in India in 2025, which will be aimed at building India-specific online safety products and solutions. It also launched a new initiative, called AI Skills House, to skill 1 Cr Indians with skills related to AI.