PM Modi Interacts With Sundar Pichai, Discusses Electronics Manufacturing In India

The Alphabet CEO told the PM about Google’s plans to improve financial inclusion in India by leveraging the strength and reach of Google Pay and Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday virtually interacted with tech behemoth Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai and discussed the company's plan to participate in expanding the electronics manufacturing ecosystem in the country. The PM and Pichai discussed Google's plan to participate in expanding the electronics manufacturing ecosystem in India.

The Alphabet CEO told the PM about Google’s plans to improve financial inclusion in India by leveraging the strength and reach of Google Pay and Unified Payments Interface (UPI). He also stressed on Google’s commitment to contribute to the development trajectory of India.

Modi also lauded Google’s partnership with laptop and PC-making major HP to manufacture Chromebooks in locally. He also acknowledged Google’s 100 languages initiative and encouraged efforts to make aritificial intelligence (AI) tools available in local Indian languages. He also encouraged Google to work on AI tools for "Good Governance".

HP rceently has joined hands with Google to manufacture Chromebooks in India from October 2. The Chromebook models will be manufactured at the company's Flex Facility near Chennai, where HP has been producing a range of laptops and desktops since August 2020, it said in a statement. HP is one of the applicants under the government’s Rs 17,000 crore production linked incentive scheme for IT hardware.

The move will expand HP’s India-made PC lineup. HP has been expanding its manufacturing operations in India since 2020 and from December 2021, it started manufacturing a wide range of laptops in India, including HP EliteBooks, HP ProBooks, and HP G8 series notebooks. The company also expanded its portfolio of locally-manufactured commercial desktops by adding various models of desktop mini towers (MT), mini desktops (DM), small form factor (SFF) desktops, and a range of All-in-One PCs.

The PM welcomed Google’s plans to open its global fintech operations center at the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.