Exclusive | Country has set shining example with UPI, Aadhaar & India stack: Sundar Pichai

“You’ll see the value of having an open connected stack, which works and that’s what the internet is… India will stand to benefit a lot. I think India will be a successful exporter in this digital economy as well,” said Pichai.

Pichai had said on Monday that he often cites the example of India’s UPI as an example to follow in other countries. “Google built Google Pay in India based on the UPI stack. And now we are bringing that to other countries around the world,” he added.

Responding to a question on
two orders by India’s competition watchdog in October that had imposed heavy fines on Google, Pichai that he was “definitely concerned” by some aspects of the rulings as they can “really set back user privacy and security”.

He added that a free mobile operating system like Android has powered the digital revolution in countries like India and that it’s an important area to “get right”.

Madurai born-Pichai, 50, who has been at the helm of the internet giant for seven years spoke to The Economic Times in an exclusive interview during his ongoing visit to India.

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Speaking about India’s current overhaul of tech and telecom regulations, Pichai said that a balance is required. “…that’s what I see in a lot of the proposals (draft regulations) and we will be a constructive partner (to the government),” he said.
Pichai met President Droupadi Murmu,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Monday and external affairs minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday.

“I think the scale and the role that technology plays in society, governments rightfully, including in India — particularly given the scale of India — are ensuring that they are thinking about citizen’s rights, particularly around privacy, security, data, etc. I think it is going to be very, very important,” he said, referring to the upcoming legislation.

Pichai said Google has been in India for a long time and is committed to the country for the long term. “It’s important to me that we are a responsible local company in the context of helping India through its Digital India vision.”

In 2020, Google
announced a $10 billion India Digitization Fund (IDF). On Tuesday, Pichai said that Google “couldn’t be more pleased” with the progress made with the fund.

“We made large investments, with (Reliance) Jio, with (Bharti) Airtel and a few others. Part of the work we did with Jio was developing the JioPhone, and we’re doing that with other partners as well, but our motivation is to make sure we’re bringing affordable access to as many people as possible.”

He added that working with partners to improve 5G connectivity has been a big part of the focus of the digitisation fund. The company is also focused on investing in startups now, especially those led by women. “I’m excited about it. I think AI offers an opportunity for many more innovations to come. We want to make sure we are using the IDF to contribute there with a focus on even sectors like agriculture, healthcare, etc.”

Speaking about the so-called tech winter which has hit the West with spending freezes and large-scale layoffs across several BigTech firms, he said that there was a boom during the pandemic, and now there are the post-pandemic effects leading to reversal of some trend. These are taking place in confluence with macroeconomic trends, such as the supply chain pressures, rising interest rates, and the war in Ukraine.

“In the slightly mid-to-long term horizon, the underlying innovations in technology will continue pushing forward. That’s what I’m focused on. We are sharpening our focus through a moment like this, but I think these are natural cycles, which the tech industry has gone through before. So, I think, it’s just a matter of time until we all work through this,” he said.

He added that some of the pandemic trends are here to stay such as the shift to digital meetings, eHealth visits and digital payments.

Google on Monday announced a slew of new innovations and features which were driven by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Pichai said that the core mission of search is already getting transformed by AI.

“When I think about Google for the next 5-10 years, I think AI will end up impacting not just our core products in a deep way. But through the cloud, our ability to bring AI to other organisations will end up being a big part of our progress over the next five to 10 years as well.”

Answering a question on ChatGPT, which has taken the Internet by storm, Pichai said Google is “very excited by the potential for these things”.

“But I think, you know, we are going to be thoughtful about how we can bring together experiences that would work for people. And at the same time, about the APIs, or the platforms we can provide for enterprises as well,” Pichai said.

“We are definitely thinking deeply about these areas, and we’ll share more progress through next year,” he said on whether Google is working on similar projects like ChatGPT.

“In the consumer internet space, there’s going to be a lot of innovation. People come to Google for certain key attributes. So, we’re going to bring (those). I think our opportunity is to evolve our products.”

Commenting on geopolitical tensions that has led to the once borderless web to become fragmented, Pichai said that a set of countries with shared values should advocate a free open and connected internet.

“There are aspects of the digital world which will reflect the reality of how countries are organised and so you will have some impact. We’ve been dealing with it for a long time as a company. We are going through a phase where some of those trends will play out much stronger, which is why we’ve advocated for a free open and connected internet. But I think hopefully, there are a set of countries with a shared set of values, which will hopefully make it a priority because I think it’s a common good on which, the internet as we know it today, (is built).

Talking about how governments are making companies like Google and Facebook share revenue with news organisations, Pichai said, “We have always deeply cared about the value, the importance of news and journalistic content. Around the world, we are leaning in. We have built new products and we are raising the role of authoritative information across our products. We will continue to do that. It’s really important we do it well.”

CCI Rulings

On October 20, the Competition Commission of India
imposed a penalty of Rs. 1,337.76 crore on Google for allegedly abusing its dominant position in multiple markets in the Android Mobile device ecosystem. Less than a week later,
CCI imposed another penalty of Rs. 936.44 crore on Google for abusing its dominant position with respect to its Play Store policies, apart from issuing a cease-and-desist order. The Commission also directed Google to modify its conduct within a defined timeline.

“We invest a lot in Android, but we provide it as a free operating system. And it’s used by many OEMs. And it’s powered this digital revolution, including bringing access to hundreds of millions of users and developers. They have used it to scale and so I think it’s functioning well… I think it’s important to make sure we work hard to protect users through it all,” Pichai said on Tuesday.

“I want to respect the legal proceedings and the Commission’s authority. Our issue is more on the substance of making sure that Android and Play, which is a big platform and ecosystem, works well for Indian people and consumers. That’s where my concerns will be.”

“It is important to understand these are platforms on top of which a lot of innovation is happening. India is the number one market for these apps. There are more apps created in India on Google Play than in any other country. So, it’s a big source of innovation,” he added.