Google for India 2024: Making the promise of AI real for individuals, society and the economy
Today, we hosted the tenth edition of Google for India, a milestone that invites us to reflect on the incredible transformation we've witnessed in the Indian tech landscape.
Over the past decade, India has emerged as a global tech powerhouse. With the world’s lowest data prices, video became millions of Indians' first handshake with the internet. UPI rewrote the boundaries of our financial networks (and digital economy) and CoWin ensured that Indians could access their health passports digitally, while the rest of the world still relied on paper.
As India has embraced tech more deeply, Google’s engagement with India too has deepened over the years. From small beginnings in Bengaluru and Hyderabad in 2004, we've grown to multiple offices across 5 cities. We've seen firsthand how India's innovative use of technology foreshadows global trends, offering a window into the future of tech. This is why we're increasingly supporting global product development from India. The nation's ingenuity and talent are invaluable assets in shaping the future of technology, especially in the exciting realm of AI.
Today, our objective is to make the promise of AI real for every Indian, illustrating the many ways it can supercharge our collective potential. AI can galvanize the ways in which every citizen can become as unlimited as their imagination, revolutionize critical areas like healthcare and agriculture, and help transform India's demographic advantage into a true demographic dividend.
AI, in essence, is a force multiplier - helping make India’s vastness manageable while also amplifying individual capabilities. To explore this further, our “AI Opportunity Agenda for India” whitepaper highlights how India can maximize AI’s potential to boost economic growth, accelerate inclusive progress and help India emerge as a global leader in public services, setting a blueprint for the world.
At Google, we are committed to collaborating with the nation’s experts, innovators, and policymakers, to help India achieve her ambitious goals with AI. We're doing this by democratizing access to information, investing in infrastructure to build a thriving AI ecosystem, and equipping individuals with the skills to succeed in an AI-powered future. Naturally, the shift to AI brings to the fore, valid and urgent conversations about erecting guardrails that protect our citizens, our data and our country.. At today’s event, we also discussed the various steps we are taking to advance the cause of online safety even further.
With this framework in mind, here are the key developments we shared at Google for India today:
Bringing AI to every Indian across our products
- Breaking Down Information Barriers: With Gemini, our most powerful AI yet, we're making information more accessible to people in India. Language remains core to this mission. We’re expanding Gemini Live, the Gemini app's mobile conversation experience, and AI Overviews in Google Search to more Indian languages. To help Indians seamlessly access information in ways most natural to them, we’re launching innovations across our products including a new Google Lens capability enabling you to search with video and powerful features to make your journeys more insightful, visual, and safer with Google Maps.
- Empowering businesses with AI: AI is helping businesses of all sizes stand out and thrive in the digital world. With new AI-powered tools, businesses can create captivating visuals and videos to showcase their products, update their online presence for a more immersive experience, and effectively engage customers with instant chat integrated in their Google Search listings.
- Expanding Financial Inclusion: Google Pay is expanding access to credit in India with new offerings designed to meet the diverse needs of Indian users. This includes a new partnership with Aditya Birla Finance Limited and gold-backed loans in partnership with Muthoot Finance.
- Supporting digital health infrastructure: Google’s research team has been supporting the National Health Authority with thought leadership to build platforms and tools that help developers integrate apps with the digital architecture for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission more seamlessly. Starting next year, ABHA ID Cards will also be accessible in the Google Wallet app, in partnership with Eka Care.
Driving large-scale impact through Gemini and Google Cloud
- Open Networks and AI Converge to Empower India: Google is launching an open-source AI Agent Framework in India, powered by Gemini. By combining the power of open networks with advanced AI, this initiative aims to deliver scaled impact, empowering both businesses and consumers. It will unify access to information and services across different sectors, with an initial focus on revolutionizing agriculture and skilling.
- Strengthening India's Data Sovereignty: Indian organizations spanning all sectors, including the public sector, will have the option to both store their data at-rest and conduct machine learning processing for our cutting-edge large language model, Gemini 1.5 Flash, entirely within India.
- Sharing India's Digital Success with the World: Inspired by India's groundbreaking digital infrastructure, Google is launching "DPI in a Box" with EkStep Foundation. This "plug-and-play" model, leveraging open networks, identity and other digital public goods, empowers other nations to build their own robust digital public infrastructure.
Making investments in Online Safety, Skill development and Green Energy to ensure long-term growth with AI
- Prioritizing Online Safety: To better protect Android users from financial fraud, we're soon piloting enhanced fraud protection within Google Play Protect in India. Building on our commitment to user safety, we will establish a new Google Safety Engineering Center (GSEC) in India in 2025. The center will tackle online threats by combining the expertise of our safety engineers, local policy experts, and government partners; focusing on combating scams and fraud, bolstering security for businesses and government, and advancing research in online safety.
- Advancing clean energy goals in India: We are sharing two new clean energy partnerships in India that will add 186 megawatts of renewable power to the grid. We’re partnering with CleanMax to harness wind and solar power in Karnataka and Rajasthan, and with Adani Energy for a new solar-wind hybrid plant in Gujarat. These projects will support Google's offices and cloud infrastructure while contributing to India's clean energy goals.
- Skilling India for the Age of AI: AI Skills House, a new initiative, aims to equip 10 million Indians with AI training through easily accessible digital courses. Learners can access resources, including Google's flagship AI courses, on YouTube and Google Cloud Skills Boost. Further, Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org is supporting Central Square Foundation with a $4 million grant as it empowers India's next generation with AI awareness and literacy. Google.org is also building on its previous philanthropic support to Rocket Learning by providing a team of Google.org Fellows to work full-time and pro bono to help develop an AI-powered learning tutor for young children.
