Sundar Pichai discusses Google's plans for India with Prime Minister Modi

Google CEO Sundar Pichai met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the United States on Friday to discuss Google's plans for India and how Google can collaborate in areas of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, fintech, and skill development, among others.

Pichai said India has great potential in artificial intelligence (AI) and the opportunity for India to make more progress is exciting.

Here are the key announcements made by Pichai:

1) Google to open global fintech operations centre in GIFT City, Gujarat

This will help cement India's fintech leadership, thanks to UPI and Aadhaar, Pichai said. Google aims to build on that foundation and take it globally.

"We are very excited about the progress, and, with the advent of AI, I think the opportunity for India to make more progress is definitely exciting. And we're going to support the Prime Minister's vision there," he noted.

2) Google will continue investing in India

Google will invest $10 billion in India's digitisation fund, Pichai had said during his visit to India in December last year. He said Google is committed to continue investing through companies working on AI.

3) Bard to reach more Indian languages

Google's Bard, a conversational chatbot powered by generative AI, will be expanded to more Indian languages soon, which will help take Google's 100-language initiative a step further, Pichai said.

Google has been working on making text and voice internet search available in over 100 Indian languages, Pichai had said during his visit to India in December.

4) Collaboration with India in different areas

The ministry of external affairs, in a tweet, said Prime Minister Modi invited Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of AI, fintech, and cybersecurity products and services, as well as mobile device manufacturing in India.

They also discussed collaboration between Google and academic institutions in India to promote research and development and skill development, the ministry said.

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Modi is visiting the United States from June 21 to June 24 at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Besides Pichai, the prime minister interacted with top CEOs, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and AMD CEO Lisa Su.

"His (PM Modi's) vision for Digital India was ahead of its time. I now see it as a blueprint other countries are looking to do. And, the follow-through on the scaling up of India's digital stack is a model other countries are thinking about. It's something which will be important in G20, as well, which is obviously happening in India. So it's really exciting to see the progress, his commitment towards the economic growth for India, and we are glad to be partners in the journey," Pichai said.

During his visit to India in December, Pichai had also announced that a part of the India Digitisation Fund is increasingly focusing on startups from India and one-fourth of $300 million, from the fund, will be invested in entities that are led by women.

Google had announced a collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru to collect speech data from 773 districts across India to fine-tune its language translation and search technology.

The internet major has announced a grant of $1 million to set up India's first responsible AI centre at IIT Madras and a $1-million grant via Google.Org to Wadhwani AI towards using advanced technology for better agricultural outcomes.

(With inputs from PTI)