Google is pledged to focus on hardware development and manufacturing in India. In this light, the company has promised to give India priority in its product rollouts. The firm has reaffirmed this commitment on its 20th anniversary in India. Romila Datta Chobey, Managing Director of Google India said that this is actually an area of focus for the company.
Chobey pointed out that Indian government’s focus on manufacturing is quite in sync with what Google has set as strategic goals. ” India is an important manufacturing Centre for us,” she informed. The company has recently reaffirmed this commitment by launching the first made-in-India Pixel 8 smartphones and announced plans for the Pixel 9. Significantly, Google proposes to export these products across markets in the United States and Europe.
In addition to hardware, Google has also strived to expand its customer services by setting up its first walk-in stores in India in the cities of Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru. Those shops are looking to offer full support to Google products. As Chobey commented further “We believe that turnaround time matters, but at the same time, we have continued our partnership with Flipkart for online sales and Croma for retail.”
She would not reveal specific volumes of production but sounded optimistic about increasing manufacturing output in India. “The idea is to work with both local and global players but manufacture in India,” she said, indicating a strategic approach to expansion operations.
Even though facing regulatory scrutiny and stiff competition from new start-ups, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has seen substantive growth in user numbers over the past few years. Commenting on the CCI verdict on Play Store as well as Chrome, Chobey said that now there is a greater need for regulatory frameworks and stakeholders should work to find their way forward.
Chobey also elaborated on how people may not completely understand Google’s humongous catalogue of products, but she claimed that within the two decades the company has been there in India, there hasn’t been a major issue between Google and the government as well as the policymakers. “We are actively collaborating and helping different stakeholders understand how our products work,” she said.
Looking ahead, Chobey pointed out artificial intelligence and digital payments are a couple of areas where Google is already working on in India. She announced an initiative to skill 10 million people in AI and said this reflected Google’s commitment to making technology accessible and beneficial for all. She said skilling brings the broader ecosystem and ensured the transformative potential of AI would be realized.
