Highlighting India's pace of progress, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said the country is going to have an "extraordinary trajectory" with artificial intelligence, adding that his company is committed to being a partner in this.
"AI is the biggest platform shift of our lifetimes and one of the most powerful tools to solve problems and improve lives at planetary scale," Pichai said at an event on the sidelines of the India AI Impact Summit on Wednesday, emphasising that the technology will have a significant role to play in making diseases more treatable and learning more accessible.
Pointing out that there is a very high adoption of, and optimism for, AI technologies in India, Pichai said they present a chance for the country to "leapfrog age-old gaps" and create new opportunities.
Following the announcement of a $15-billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam last year, the Google CEO on Wednesday unveiled the India-America Connect Initiative, which will deliver new sub-sea cable routes. This, he said, will increase AI connectivity between the US, India and multiple locations across the southern hemisphere.
To ensure people will have the skills to utilise this infrastructure, Pichai also announced what he described as "some of our most ambitious skilling programmes yet". One of the key inclusions in this will be a new Google AI professional certificate programme. In India, he said, Google is partnering with Wadhwani AI to help students and early career professionals develop the skills needed to excel in the use of the technology.
The programme, he noted, will be available in English and Hindi, with more Indian languages to follow.
"According to the 2025 Government AI Readiness Index, India is in the top tier of nations for public sector adoption driven by its world-leading digital public infrastructure. I'm pleased to share our new landmark partnership with Karma Yogi Bharat to accelerate a future-ready civil service," he said.
To this end, Google Cloud will provide secure infrastructure for a platform supporting more than 20 million public servants across 800 districts, and in 18 Indian languages.
Advancing global research and solving complex problems in science was also a focus of Pichai's speech, and he announced a $30-million Google.org AI For Science Impact Challenge to drive the next generation of scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence.
Other initiatives included partnerships with Atal Tinkering Labs to introduce Gen AI tools to 10,000 schools, and a partnership between Google DeepMind and the Indian government to broaden access to frontier AI capabilities.
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