Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, during a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Joe Biden and other business leaders in the East Room of the White House, on June 23, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP
After meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington, DC on June 23, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said that Google is investing $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund and announced the opening of its global fintech operation centre in Gujarat.
He also praised the Prime Minister’s vision for Digital India, a flagship campaign of the Modi government. “The PM’s vision for Digital India was way ahead of his time and I now see it as a blueprint that other countries are looking to do,” added the Google CEO.
“It was an honour to meet PM Modi during the historic visit to the U.S. We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India’s digitisation fund,” Mr. Pichai said, adding, “We are excited today that we are announcing the opening up of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT city Gujarat.”
GIFT city, or the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, is a central business district under construction in Gandhinagar district in Gujarat
Mr. Pichai, who joined Google in 2004, became the CEO of the company in 2015. He met PM Modi in New Delhi in December last year and said it was inspiring to see the rapid pace of technological change under his leadership.
PM Modi meets top business leaders
Besides Mr. Pichai, PM Modi also met CEOs of Amazon Andrew Jassy and Boeing David L. Calhoun in Washington.
Mr. Calhoun in an interview with ANI said, “The most important takeaway is the PM’s passion for India’s development. He does have a specific interest in aviation, in aerospace. It is a big vision.”
He emphasised the importance of India playing a significant role not only for the country but also for the broader region broadly in aviation and aerospace.
Whereas, Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy expressed his commitment to generating additional employment opportunities in India after meeting PM Modi.
“Very interested in helping create more jobs, helping digitise more small and medium size businesses and helping more Indian companies and products be able to be exported all around the world,” said Mr. Jassy.