In A Virtual Tête-à-Tête With PM Modi, Google CEO Sundar Pichai Reaffirms Tech Giant’s India Commitment

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Monday (October 16) interacted with Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai. During the virtual interaction, the two sides discussed a host of issues, including Google’s plans to manufacture laptops in India and establish its presence in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT). 

As per an official statement, the PM lauded Google’s partnership with HP to manufacture Chromebooks in the country. PM Modi also welcomed the big tech giant’s plans to open its global fintech operations centre at the GIFT City in Gandhinagar. 

The virtual call also saw the PM pushing Google to work on artificial intelligence (AI) tools for good governance. Meanwhile, PM Modi also acknowledged Google’s 100 languages initiative and called for bolstering efforts to make AI tools available in local Indian languages. 

As per an official statement, Pichai informed PM Modi about Google’s plans to improve financial inclusion in the country by leveraging UPI through its offering, Google Pay. The Google CEO also affirmed his commitment towards the development trajectory of India.

Meanwhile, the PM also invited the big tech giant to participate in the upcoming AI Summit, which will be hosted by India in December 2023 in New Delhi.

Curiously, the virtual interaction comes days ahead of the big tech giant’s flagship Google for India summit, which is scheduled to be held on October 19 in New Delhi. The event is expected to centre around AI technologies and will see participation from big names across the industry spectrum. In a post, the company suggested that the announcements at the event will range from ‘access to Internet, to success on the Internet.’

Just days ago, the US-based IT hardware giant HP announced that it has joined hands with Google to manufacture the low-cost Chromebooks in the country. 

Meanwhile, Google continues to be bogged down by regulatory challenges in India. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) chairperson, Ravneet Kaur, recently said that the watchdog was pursuing a detailed probe against Google over alleged dominance in the smart television segment and news aggregation space. 

The Supreme Court has postponed the hearing of Google’s INR 1,337.76 Cr Android antitrust case to January 2024. 

In a bid to streamline its policy offerings and mend bridges with government officials, Google recently appointed policy veteran Sreenivasa Reddy as the head of its public policy affairs in India.