Keen to help Indian startups: Pichai

Washington: New Delhi, Dec. 3: It’s an exciting time in India,” remarked Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who says he is “heartened to see the number of startups proving themselves on a global stage and unicorns being created.” The tech “wants to help” in a few ways, he said. Last year, the company committed USD 10 billion to the India Digitisation Fund. As a part of this, it hopes to support companies in India, solve new things, and “provide them with AI, technology and platforms to scale up and reach more users,” said Pichai, who was speaking at the HT Leadership Summit 2021.

Pichai said the tech giant remains committed to playing a “strong enabling role” in supporting the growth of the Indian market. This is being done through various efforts across cloud, AI and the Android OS. “I view it as an important role for Google to be local and engage in every country with the best interests of that country in mind,” he said. Google deals with a number of different regulatory systems in various countries and is, according to Pichai, “deeply committed to engaging in every country locally, complying with local laws.

The company is also investing in foundational infrastructure in India and a lot of its services would allow people to export outside the country. “I view India as a place where, over time, we will be able to build things and take it globally.”

Google Pay, for instance, began here in India and is now making its way to other markets around the world. “I’m so excited about building for India first, and also building in India to solve problems globally as well.”