After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent official visit to the western superpower, three US tech titans announced significant investments in India. For the development of Indian technology, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have pledged financial investments and technological collaboration.
Google has announced that it will open its global fintech operation hub in Gujarat, whereas Amazon has pledged to invest an extra USD 15 billion in India over the next seven years, bringing the company’s total India investment across all companies to USD 26 billion.
Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella in his meeting with the Prime Minister discussed the power of technology, particularly Artificial Intelligence, to help improve the lives of Indians.
“India is home to one of the most vibrant developer and start-up ecosystems in the world, and Microsoft remains deeply committed to the growth of Indian technology – that will impact both India and markets across the globe,” a Microsoft statement read after the meeting.
Jugalbandi, a new generative AI-driven chatbot for government help, was introduced by Microsoft last month in India. It can comprehend queries in many different languages, whether they are typed or spoken. It obtains data about pertinent programmes, typically written in English, and then transmits it back in the native tongue. Language models from AI4Bharat, a government-backed project, and reasoning models from Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service are the brains behind the Jugalbandi AI helper.
As per reports, Google CEO Sundar Puchai said that he shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund. “We are announcing the opening of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT City, Gujarat.”
According to a statement from Amazon, the company’s CEO, Andy Jassy, and the PM discussed empowering people and small businesses to compete worldwide, enabling exports, promoting Indian entrepreneurs, and creating jobs.
According to a company statement, “Amazon has pledged to digitise 10 million small businesses, enable $20 billion in exports, and create 2 million jobs in India by 2025. Currently, Amazon India is on track to deliver on them, having already digitised over 6.2 million small businesses, enabled over $7 billion in exports, and created over 1.3 million direct and indirect jobs.”
On his final day in the US, PM Modi attended the “Hi-Tech handshake” big event at the White House in Washington DC, where he had the opportunity to network with business leaders from a variety of sectors, including semiconductors, manufacturing, space, and start-ups.
“In his remarks, Prime Minister underlined the immense potential of harnessing India-US tech cooperation for socio-economic growth. He also applauded the contribution of India’s talented youth in fostering a culture of innovation. President Biden called on CEOs to help expand India-US tech partnership to new fields including biotechnology and quantum,” a government release on the event said.
Apple’s Tim Cook, Flex’s Revathi Advaithi, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, FMC Corporation’s Mark Douglas, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Google’s Sundar Pichai were all in attendance.
India has signed the Artemis Accords for space exploration. A strategic framework for cooperation in human spaceflight is being developed by NASA and ISRO by the end of this year.
