Google is committed to supporting Indian companies in building technologies for the global market, said Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google’s parent company Alphabet.
Speaking at the 19th edition of Hindustan Times Leadership Summit (HTLS), Pichai said the company wants to partner with Indian start-ups and entrepreneurs to build products like Google Pay that originated in the country but is now leading the company’s payments business worldwide.
“Understanding India’s digital payments journey with UPI (Unified Payment Interface), we invested in Google Pay. The foundation of that experience is what’s making its way to other markets around the world," Pichai said.
The focus is not just on how Google’s products evolve, but in helping other industries transform as well, the Madurai-born CEO said.
Google had committed $10 billion to the India Digitisation Fund last year and wants to continue to support Indian companies in “solving newer things”, Pichai said.
According to the CEO, Google plans to contribute to the India tech industry through funding and collaborating with technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
"We want to provide companies in India with AI and technologies and platforms, so they can scale up their ideas and reach more users," he said, adding that the collaboration will help people to export outside India.
Pichai spoke of the Android mobile operating system and Google’s cloud services, which are being used by many Indian companies to deploy their services and products.
Google is working on designing a high-quality smartphone at affordable prices that will meet the needs of the domestic market, he said.
Last month, Reliance launched the JioPhone Next, a budget Android-based smartphone made by Jio Platforms and Google. The phone uses the Pragati OS, an “extremely optimised” operating system that has features such as screen translation in 10 Indian languages.
Calling it a deep effort in localising offerings to suit India’s needs, Pichai said the entire process is a long one which may not show its impact on the market instantaneous.
“Something like this typically takes a long time to play out, but the impact is big as it profoundly impacts the ability for many people to get access to a digital journey. Hopefully, this will be an accelerator for the Digital India vision," he said.
On regulations, Pichai said countries should take a holistic view while drawing a balance between laws and the internet’s openness, adding that Google was committed to complying with necessary IT regulations across the globe.
(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)
