Google Cloud's ambitious India plans

India is among the fastest-growing markets for Google in the cloud services segment, a senior executive has said, adding that the tech giant is looking to partner companies in their business transformation through its offerings.

Google Cloud India is seeing an "increased adoption" of its offerings across segments from the public sector to small and medium businesses and from startups and digital-native companies, Google Cloud India vice president and country managing director Bikram Singh Bedi told PTI.

"If you look at cloud services as a segment, India is one of the fastest-growing countries for Google.

"If you look at the kind of customers that we're working with across segments -- public sector, SMB, smaller companies, medium-sized companies, large enterprises, startups, digital native companies... across the board...we're working with multiple stakeholders who are essentially using Google Cloud services and then over a period of time, this usage has been incrementally growing," Bedi said.

Cloud has moved from being one of the technologies to be used into the centre stage now.

"The early adopters will always be companies who are perhaps more agile...think of digital-native companies, startups...

"Just to give a little bit of perspective, 90 per cent of Gen AI unicorns now use Google Cloud.

"And 60 per cent of all Gen AI-funded companies use Google.

"And this is up from last year, so you're seeing this increased adoption that is coming across the board in that whole digital native space," he said.

Google Cloud recently announced a plan to bring together the power of Beckn-enabled open networks' and Gemini (Google's GenAI chatbot) by way of an open-source Gemini Agent Framework available to Indian businesses and users.

This framework, powered by Google's AI model Gemini enables users to search and discover listings from electronics to seeds, from jobs to educational courses, and make transactions seamlessly across key sectors like agriculture and skilling.

Users will be able to access this extensive information from a single interface, using their voice on any network-compliant app in the language of their choice.

Farmers can now have access to a wealth of knowledge from best practices to market linkages, and even formal credit, all in one place.

"Glance will be the first app to offer this agent to its 235 million Android users across the country, equipping India's youth with the skills they need to thrive in the digital economy.

"To help export the unique and transformative architecture of India's DPI stack to enable other nations to build their digital infrastructure, Google Cloud is collaborating with the EkStep Foundation to create 'DPI in a box', a plug-and-play model based on open network, identity, digital credentials, and other Digital Public Goods," Google said in a release earlier this month.

The tech titan lined up a slew of AI-powered innovations announced Indian language capabilities for Gemini Live, and unveiled new updates for Google Lens, Google Maps, Google Cloud as well as Google Pay at the tenth edition of the 'Google for India' event in New Delhi.

"Google Cloud is committed to partnering with Indian businesses and innovators to harness the transformative power of AI.

"Through initiatives like our open-source Gemini Agent Framework and collaborations on 'DPI in a box', we are not only advancing India's digital landscape but also creating a blueprint for digital inclusion," according to Bedi.