With Pixel phones, Google set to be trusted Make in India partner

India on Thursday found its latest partner to join in the local manufacturing initiative with Google — arguably the last remaining tech major to do so — committing to roll out the first made in India Pixel phone by 2024.

Google will soon start producing Pixel 8, the latest of its premium smartphone series in India, with international as well as domestic manufacturing partners. The development assumes significance, as it follows an arrangement between global PC maker HP and Google to manufacture Chromebook laptops in India from October 2. During its annual Google for India summit, the company for the first time laid emphasis on development and supplies of its hardware products as a “trusted partner” to the country.

“It’s an early step towards expanding our production here to meet the local demand for Pixel devices and even more importantly, it’s a huge step forward in Google’s commitment to India. It helps us better serve the billion-plus people in India with our products and services every day,” said Rick Osterloh, senior vice-president at Google for devices and services.

Osterloh said that with the third highest shipments in the world, India’s premi­um smartphone market is booming. Acco­rding to a report by International Data Co­r­poration, India reported over 50 per cent year-on-year growth in the segment in 2022. “India is a priority market for Pixel and we are committed to bringing the best of Google’s hardware and software exper­i­en­ces to the country and we see an even gre­ater opportunity to make Pixel’s incredible innovation and helpfulness available to more people across India,” Osterloh said.

Pixel forms a tiny part of the global smartphone shipments with 315,900 units — a share of just 0.5 per cent — sold in the first half of 2023. Still, Google has focused on providing special features like night sight for low light photography and computational photography to on-the-phone translations with its Tensor chips.

“We have invited Google to start manufacturing Tensor chips in an Indian fab within three years. Also, we want them to start producing Pixel Fold models locally. We also want a collaboration with Google to deepen the entire (electronic) compon­ent ecosystem,” said Union Minister for Co­m­m­u­nications, Electronics and Infor­m­ation Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The announcement came days after Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google and Alphabet, in a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the company’s role in enhancing India’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem. The conversation also focused on hardware manufacturing as the new chapter of Google’s partnership with India.

Merchant credit line, sachet loans on GPay

At Thursday’s event, Google also made a series of other announcements. The company has inked partnerships with banks and financing companies to increase cre­dit penetration for GPay users and small businesses. The new partners include Axis Bank, Indifi Technologies and DMI Fina­nce. While the credit is underwritten by ac­credited financial institutions, Google Pay collaborates with them to make it accessible, simple and convenient.

Earlier this year, Google Pay added the facility to add RuPay credit cards to the app, and use them to seamlessly make payments via Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Extending the function further, in collaboration with its payment service pro­v­ider, ICICI Bank, users can avail cr­e­dit lines from banks on UPI, and use it to make payments via Google Pay in the same way that they would with a UPI payment.

DigiKavach to combat online fraud

With a new early threat detection and war­ning system, Google unveiled DigiKavach, a flagship programme to identify and stu­dy emerging financial fraud patterns and develop and implement effective counter measures before they cause widespread harm.