‘Way Ahead of Its Time’: Google’s Sundar Pichai on PM Modi’s Vision for Digital India – News18

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Friday lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for Digital India, emphasizing that it was ahead of its time and has now become a global model.

This praise came after Pichai had a brief interaction with the Prime Minister in Washington, alongside other top American tech CEOs.

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“His vision for Digital India was way ahead of its time. I now see it as blueprint other countries are looking to do. The follow-through of scaling up India’s digital stack is model other countries are thinking about,” Pichai said after meeting Modi.

The Indian-American executive of the US tech giant, who last met Modi in December, shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing USD 10 billion in the digitization fund of India.

“We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing USD 10 billion in India’s digitization fund. And we are continuing to invest through that including in companies working in AI,” he said.

Pichai also announced that Google is bringing the company’s generative AI chatbot Bard to more Indian languages very soon.

He shared that Google is opening up its global fin-tech operation center in the Gift City of Gujarat. “It will cement India’s fintech leadership thanks to UPI and Aaddhar. We are going to build on the foundation and take it globally,” he added.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said PM Modi invited Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of Artificial Intelligence, fintech and cybersecurity.

“A good conversation between PM Narendra Modi and CEO of Alphabet Inc. & Google Sundar Pichai. PM invited Sundar Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI); fintech; cybersecurity products & services; as well as mobile device manufacturing in India,” Bagchi tweeted.

They also discussed collaboration between Google and academic institutions in India to promote R&D and skill development.

On Friday, the Prime Minister met with US and Indian technology CEOs in Washington on the final day of a state visit. President Joe Biden and Modi gathered with CEOs including Apple’s Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella.

The CEOs discussed the enormous opportunities and ways to deepen institutional cooperation in cutting-edge tech and R&D between the two countries.

“India-US | Trusted partners in High Technology collaborations. PM Narendra Modi & @POTUS @JoeBiden addressed a gathering of Indian and American CEOs of leading tech companies at a special event in the @WhiteHouse. @SecRaimondo moderated the event,” Arindam Bagchi, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a tweet.

The Prime Minister underlined the immense potential of harnessing India-US tech cooperation for socio-economic growth.

Also present were Sam Altman of OpenAI, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams, and Indian tech leaders including Anand Mahindra, chairman of Mahindra Group, and Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries.