Google announces $8 million funding for India's AI research ecosystem

Google's latest funding will support four AI centres of excellence, healthcare research, Indic language technologies and startups

Tech giant Google on Tuesday announced $8 million in funding for four Indian artificial intelligence (AI) centres of excellence, alongside a series of research collaborations and healthcare-focused AI initiatives aimed at strengthening the country’s AI ecosystem.

 

The funding was announced at Google’s Lab to Impact dialogue, held as a part of the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi.

 

The four Centres of Excellence include:

 

• TANUH, IISc Bengaluru: Focuses on non-communicable diseases
• Airawat Research Foundation, IIT Kanpur: Works on urban governance
• AI Centre of Excellence for Education, IIT Madras
• ANNAM.AI, IIT Ropar: Focuses on agriculture and farmer welfare

Speaking at the event, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "India is approaching AI as a strategic national capability, not as a short-term technology trend. The four AI Centres of Excellence have been conceived as a coordinated national research mission, advancing foundational research, responsible AI, and applied solutions that serve public purpose, and contributing to our larger aspiration of Viksit Bharat 2047".

 

He added that Google also plans to give a $2 million founding grant to establish the Indic Language Technologies Research Hub at IIT Bombay, which will focus on advancing AI for India’s linguistic diversity.

 

Funding in healthcare

Google, the creator of AI models like Gemini and Gemma, also announced $400,000 in funding to support collaborations using MedGemma to develop health-focused models intended to improve healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.

 

As part of this effort, tech startup Ajna Lens will work with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to develop AI models for India-specific use cases in dermatology and patient assessments. Researchers from the IISc will also work on broader clinical applications, the company said.

 

"The resulting models will contribute to India’s Digital Public Infrastructure and their outcomes will be made accessible to the ecosystem," it added.

 

Separately, Google said it is working with the National Health Authority (NHA) to modernise unstructured medical records into the international standard, enabling easier access to health data and reducing documentation burden for hospitals.

 

Language technologies and startups

Google also said that it will provide $50,000 each to startups Gnani.AI and CoRover.AI, which are building Indic language voice and governance-focused AI models using Gemma.

 

IIT Bombay will receive a separate $50,000 grant to process Indic language health governance and policy documents to establish a novel ‘India-Centric Trait Database’ containing information on diseases, phenotypes, and genetic conditions relevant to the Indian population, the company said.

 

It added that it will also grant Wadhwani AI with $4.5 million in funding to support multilingual AI-powered applications for health and agriculture, according to a release.

 

The announcements come as part of Google's effort to expand its AI footprint in India. In October 2025, the company also announced $15 billion investment to build an AI data centre in Andhra Pradesh.