Google to invest $10bn in Indian digitisation fund

LAHORE: Indian Premier Narendra Modi virtually interacted with the 51-year-old CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, on Monday.

This development has taken place some four months after the globally renowned American multinational technology company, with most-recently reported revenues of $279.8 billion, had announced to invest US$10 billion in the digitization fund of its sitting Chief Executive Officer’s country of origin.

The Tamil Nadu-born Pichai, who completed his schooling in the city of Madras (now Chennai), had made the investment announcement after having a one-on-one discussion with Modi during latter visit to the United States in June this year.

The “Times of India” writes: “During the interaction, Prime Minister and Pichai discussed Google’s plan to participate in expanding the electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India. The Prime Minister appreciated Google’s partnership with Hewlett Packard to manufacture Chromebooks in India. Prime Minister acknowledged Google’s 100 languages initiative and encouraged efforts to make Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools available in Indian Languages. He also encouraged Google to work on AI tools for Good Governance.”

The prestigious Indian newspaper added: “Prime Minister welcomed Google’s plans to open its global fintech operations center at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar. Pichai informed the Prime Minister regarding Google’s plans to improve financial inclusion in India by leveraging the strength and reach of GPay and UPI. He also emphasized Google’s commitment to contribute to the development trajectory of India. The Prime Minister also invited Google to contribute to the upcoming Global Partnership on AI Summit, which will be hosted by India in December 2023 in New Delhi.”

Google, which focuses on artificial intelligence, online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce and consumer electronics, is now part of Indian IT sector, which bagged domestic and export revenues to the tune of $245 billion in FY 2023.

The sector overall employs 5.4 million people as of March 2023. According to various Indian media outlets, in the contemporary world economy, India is the largest exporter of IT. The contribution of the IT sector in India’s GDP rose from 1.2 percent in 1998 to 10% in 2019.

Exports dominate the Indian IT industry and constitute about 79 percent of the industry’s total revenue. However, the domestic market is also significant, with robust revenue growth.