Google and Amazon will together invest $25 billion in India.
Google will invest $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund, its CEO, Sundar Pichai announced on Saturday. He also announced the opening of a global fintech operation centre in Gujarat.
On the other hand, e-commerce giant Amazon plans to invest $15 billion more in India, taking its total investment in the country to $26 billion, the company’s President and CEO, Andy Jassy, said.
Jassy said the company has already invested $ 11 billion in India till date.
Both the investments decisions were announced after the Indian-origin CEO of Google and its parent company and Jassy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, in Washington, during the latter’s US tour. The investment announcement was made post the meeting.
Also read: Modi’s US visit may encourage more American firms to invest in India
Explore further collab with Google
File Photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the CEO of Google and Alphabet Sundar Pichai during a meeting at the White House in Washington.
As per a statement released by India’s MEA (Ministry of External Affairs), the Prime Minister invited Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of Artificial Intelligence (AI); fintech; cybersecurity products & services; and mobile device manufacturing in India.
“….also discussed collaboration between Google and academic institutions in India to promote R&D and skill development,” the statement said.
Post the meeting, Pichai told reporters, “We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund…. We are announcing the opening up of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT city, Gujarat.”
“The PM’s vision for Digital India was way ahead of its time. I now see a blueprint that other countries are looking to do,” he added.
Also read: PM Modi addresses US Congress, terms India-US relationship as ‘sun in the new dawn’
The Alphabet boss added that he was looking forward to the progress India will make with the additional $10 billion. Some ideas that Pichai would look forward to go ahead with include building a single, unified AI model that will be capable of handling more than 100 Indian languages across speech and text (a part of Google’s global efforts to bring the world’s 1,000 most-spoken languages online and to help people access knowledge and information in their preferred language); support a new multidisciplinary centre for responsible AI with IIT Madras; among others.
Praise for Amazon’s digitisation push
File Photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the CEO of Amazon Andrew Jassy during a meeting at the White House in Washington.
Modi also met President and CEO of Amazon, Andrew R. Jassy in Washington DC. Discussions centred around e-commerce, and the US-based major’s promotion of digitisation of MSMEs in India was “welcomed” by the PM.
“They also discussed the potential of further collaboration with Amazon in the logistics sector in India,” an MEA statement said.
Post the meeting, Jassy said, “I had a very good and productive conversation with Prime Minister Modi. I think we share a number of goals. Amazon is one of the biggest investors in India. We have invested $11 billion till date and intend to invest another $15 billion, which will bring the total to $26 billion.”
The Amazon CEO further added that his company was “very interested in helping create more jobs”; helping digitise more small and medium size businesses, and helping more Indian companies and products be exported all around the world.
Also read: PM Modi’s private engagement with Biden reaffirms India-US warm relations: MEA
Other Meetings
Modi interacted with the members of the Indian community at the Ronald Reagan Centre in Washington DC. In his address, he invited them to contribute to India’s “growth during Amrit Kaal”.
“Prime Minister also thanked them for playing a significant role in strengthening India-USA ties, and highlighted future areas of bilateral partnership,” the MEA statement said.
The Prime Minister also addressed a gathering of professionals at the John F. Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. The event was organised by the US – India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). Secretary of State of the USA, Antony Blinken also graced the occasion.
Stressing that “This is the moment”, Prime Minister invited professionals to forge partnerships with India.
