Google unveils AI initiatives to target India's booming tech sector

Google is localising Gemini data processing, expanding AI tools and teaming up with Indian startups and institutes to strengthen its presence in the country's AI ecosystem

Google unveiled a suite of artificial intelligence initiatives targeting India's booming tech sector at its developer conference in Bengaluru on Wednesday, signaling the search giant's deepening commitment to the world's most populous nation as a critical AI battleground.

 

The Mountain View-based company announced it would localize data processing for its high-performance Gemini 2.5 Flash thinking model within India, addressing growing concerns about data sovereignty while promising faster response times for local developers. The move comes as global tech giants race to establish dominance in India's rapidly expanding AI ecosystem.

 

At Google I/O Connect India 2025, attended by about 1800 developers, the company also introduced new agentic AI tools integrated into Firebase Studio and forged partnerships with three startups backed by India's national AI Mission to develop homegrown artificial intelligence models—a direct response to the government's "Make-in-India" technology push.

 

 

“Indian developers are literally writing the next chapter of India's success story, using AI capabilities to build real-world applications that are reaching millions of businesses and people across India and the world,” said Dr. Manish Gupta, senior director for India and APAC at Google DeepMind.

 

Google bolstered its developer outreach with a new training program partnering with Unity, the gaming engine platform, as it seeks to cultivate the next generation of Indian AI talent.

 

The company revealed that its Play Store and Android ecosystem generated Rs 4 lakh crore in revenue for app publishers and the broader Indian economy in 2024, while supporting 3.5 million jobs across direct, indirect, and spillover employment.

 

The localization strategy represents a calculated bet on India's emergence as both a major AI market and development hub, as Google competes with rivals including Microsoft and Amazon for influence in the subcontinent's tech sector, experts say.

 

Google's decision to process its Gemini 2.5 Flash model locally represents a strategic pivot toward data sovereignty. The localized processing targets developers building applications for heavily regulated sectors including healthcare, banking, and government services.

 

The move comes as India pushes its ‘Make-in-India’ AI agenda through targeted partnerships. Three startups selected by the government's India AI Mission—Sarvam, Soket AI, and Gnani—are now building domestic AI models using Google's open-source Gemma framework.

 

 

 

Google has worked closely with Sarvam on its recently launched translation model for long-form text. 

 

"India's developers are shaping how the world will use AI, and we're proud to stand with them," said Preeti Lobana, Country Manager for Google India, during a fireside chat with Subrata Mitra, Partner, Accel at the event, on building enduring AI-driven companies. “We're giving India the strongest support to build boldly for the world, fostering a profound 'AI Productivity Leap' across businesses and startups.”

 

Google is also closely partnering with BharatGen at IIT Bombay to build indigenous Indic language Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Text-to-Speech (TTS) models that will aim to make Gemma more helpful in the Indic context, especially for historically underrepresented languages and governance applications.

 

Google unveiled new mapping tools targeting India's fast-growing mobile commerce market. It is expanding the availability of fresh and accurate information in Google Maps comprising over 250 million places worldwide, enabling developers to build better generative AI features.

 

New India-specific pricing for the Google Maps Places UI Kit will help developers build easy-to-use widgets and components with the best of Google Maps Places for a fraction of the cost. Also, the expansion of AI-powered summaries in the Places API to India will enable developers to create highly informative and engaging location-based services that save users time and resonate with local needs.

 

The Indian ecosystem comprises the second largest number of active developers on Google Play across the world, contributing over 10 lakh developer jobs in 2024.