Google investing USD 10 billion in India's digitisation fund: Pichai tells PM Modi
Washington (PTI): Internet giant Google is investing USD 10 billion in India's digitisation fund, its CEO Sundar Pichai has told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a step that will recognise India's leadership on fintech and will support small and large businesses in India, the US and around the world.
Pichai met Prime Minister Modi here on Friday and also announced the opening of Google's global fintech operation centre in the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar.
"It was an honour to meet Prime Minister Modi during the historic visit to the US. We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing USD 10 billion in India's digitisation fund," Pichai said.
"We are announcing the opening of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT City, Gujarat. PM's vision for Digital India was way ahead of his time I now see it as a blueprint that other countries are looking to do," he added.
"Google today announced that it will open a Google Fintech Global Operations Center in GIFT City, Gujarat, with teams working on specialised operations supporting GPay and other product operations at Google," a Google spokesperson told PTI.
"This recognises India's leadership on fintech and will support small and large businesses in India, the US and around the world," the spokesperson said after the meeting between Pichai and the Prime Minister.
Google has been operating in India since 2004, with offices in five key cities across the country with thousands of talented employees. We currently have offices in Bangalore (Bengaluru), Hyderabad, Gurgaon - Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune, the spokesperson said.
In 2020, deepening its commitment to India and a reflection of its confidence in India's growing role in the global technology arena, Google announced the Google for India Digitisation fund, a commitment to invest USD 10 billion (approximately Rs 75,000 crores) focussing on four areas.
First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language. Second, building new services that are relevant to India's unique needs. Third, empowering businesses as they embark on digital transformation. Fourth, leveraging technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for social good.
Towards the end of last year, Google also announced support for Early Stage Startups with a particular focus on women-led startups under the India Digitisation fund.
Using AI to further India's digital transformation journey, Google AI Research Center in Bengaluru is building models to support over 100 Indian languages, and working with the Indian Institute of Science to support open sourcing of speech data through India's Bhashini project.
It has also partnered with IIT Madras to establish a multidisciplinary Center for Responsible AI.
With a focus to support businesses and governments to run on Cloud, Google Cloud has been playing a pivotal role in bringing innovative cloud technologies to India and being a part of India's digital transformation journey.
India's biggest enterprises and unicorns like Jio, Adani, Mahindra Group, Sharechat, HDFC Bank, Glance Roposo and hundreds of others are today benefiting from Google Cloud and AI offerings. To support this growing demand, Google Cloud now has 2 cloud regions in Delhi NCR and Mumbai respectively, a media release said.
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Woman, 2 sons found dead in Delhi home; suicide suspected
New Delhi (PTI): Three members of a family were found dead inside their home in southeast Delhi's Kalkaji on Friday, with police suspecting it to be a case of suicide, officials said.
Police said the incident came to light around 2.47 pm when a police team reached the premises to execute a court order related to possession of the property. When repeated knocks went unanswered, the staff used a duplicate key to open the door.
Inside, officers found Anuradha Kapoor (52) and her sons, Ashish Kapoor (32) and Chaitanya Kapoor (27), hanging from the ceiling, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said in a statement. All three were declared dead.
A handwritten note was recovered from the room, suggesting the family had been struggling with depression.
"The handwritten note indicates emotional distress faced by the family due to which the family may have taken the extreme step," the officer said.
The bodies have been shifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) mortuary for post-mortem and other legal formalities under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), police said.
Residents of the neighbourhood said they were shocked to learn about the deaths, adding that the family kept largely to themselves.
Pankaj Kashyap, a resident of Girinagar, said he learnt about the deaths while leaving for work. "I live and work here and was leaving for work when I saw many people standing outside and talking. That is how I got to know that three people had committed suicide. I also saw several police vehicles outside, but I do not know much beyond that," he said.
Baldev, another neighbour, said the family had been living in the newly constructed house for around two years. "We only knew that a mother and her two children lived there. They had moved into the newly built house around two years ago. We did not interact much with them. Today we heard that all three have committed suicide, and whatever we know is based on what people here are saying," he said.
Another neighbour, Ramesh Kumar, claimed the family had earlier attempted suicide.
"About fifteen to twenty days ago, the two sons in the family had attempted suicide and police and ambulances had come. That was when I first got to know who they were. I do not recognise them by face, but we saw the ambulances and police take the two sons that day. Today again we saw ambulances and police arriving, so everyone came out to see what had happened. I do not know how long they had been living here, but this is all we know," he said.
Police said they are examining the family's financial condition, social circumstances, and other factors that may have contributed to the incident. Further investigation is underway.
