Google to set up its global fintech operations centre in Gujarat: CEO Sundar Pichai

Internet giant Google will set up its global fintech operation centre at GIFT City in Gujarat, its CEO Sundar Pichai said on Friday after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pichai also said that his company continues to invest in India though its USD 10 billion India Digitisation Fund.

Modi is visiting US from June 21 to June 24 at invitation of President Joe Biden and First Ly Jill Biden. Besides Pichai, prime minister at an interaction with top CEOs also met Microsoft CEO Satya Nella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and AMD CEO Lisa Su, among ors "Today we are announcing opening of our global fintech operations centre in GIFT City, Gujarat. It will cement India's fintech leership, thanks to UPI, and Ahaar. We are going to build on that foundation and take it globally," Pichai said.

Indian-origin CEO said it is exciting to see progress that country has me, particularly around vision of Digital India and economic opportunity.

"I met prime minister in December, and we continued our conversation. We shared that Google is investing USD 10 billion in India digitisation fund and we are continuing to invest through that, including in companies working on artificial intelligence. As part of that, we have a 100-language initiative. We are bringing bot to more Indian languages very soon," Pichai said.

He said that prime minister's vision for Digital India was ahe of its time. "I now see it as a blueprint that or countries are looking to do so," Pichai said.

ministry of external affairs in a tweet said Prime Minister Modi invited Pichai to explore furr avenues of collaboration in domains of artificial intelligence, fintech, and cybersecurity products and services, as well as mobile device manufacturing in India.

y also discussed collaboration between Google and acemic institutions in India to promote research and development, and skill development, ministry ded.

In July 2020, Google h announced plans to invest USD 10 billion in India over next five to seven years as search giant looks to help accelerate option of digital services in key overseas market.

During his visit to India in December last year, Pichai h announced that a part of India Digitisation Fund (IDF) is increasingly focusing on startups from India and one-fourth amount of USD 300 million from fund will be invested in entities that are led by women.

Google h announced a collaboration with Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science to collect speech data from 773 districts across India to fine-tune its language translation and search technology.

internet major has announced a grant of USD 1 million to set up India's first responsible artificial intelligence centre at IIT Mras and USD 1 million grant via Google.Org to Whwani AI towards using vanced technology for better agricultural outcomes.