In order to offer gold-backed loans through its mobile payments service Gpay, Google has announced partnership with Muthoot Finance on Thursday. It was during the 10th ‘Google for India’ event that this collaboration was unveiled.
Google Celebrates 20 Years in India
Roma Datta Chobey, Google India’s Managing Director highlighted that India holds about 11% of the world’s gold, which is one of the prime reasons behind the launch of this credit product with competitive interest rates and flexible repayment options.
In addition to this, Google also introduced its AI assistant, Gemini Live, which will be available in Hindi starting October 3, 2024, with plans to add eight more Indian languages, including Bengali, Gujarati, and Tamil, in the following weeks.
As per the Senior Director of Product Management at Google India, Hema Budaraju, over 40% of Gemini users engage with the assistant via voice commands. The AI overview feature in Google Search will also be available in Bengali, Marathi, Telugu, and Tamil soon.
Google Marks 20 Years in India with AI Enhancements and Sustainable Initiatives
As Google celebrates two decades in India, it revealed intentions to integrate Beckn-enabled open networks with its Gemini AI model through an open-source framework. This initiative will allow Indian businesses and users to access a variety of listings, from electronics to educational courses, all through a voice-command-enabled interface.
Empowering the businesses and organizations to securely implement cloud and AI solutions domestically, Google is also preparing to launch ‘Gemini Flash 1.5’ in India.
While emphasizing the commitment of company to partner with Indian innovators to leverage AI for digital inclusion, Vice President and Country MD of Google Cloud India, Bikram Singh Bedi said that Google plans to establish a Safety Engineering Center in India in 2025 and announced long-term partnerships aimed at enhancing clean energy generation, contributing 186 MW of renewable energy by 2026.
For the company’s decarbonisation efforts, it is also collaborating with the Adani Group and CleanMax focus on solar and wind projects to support Google’s decarbonisation efforts.
In addition to all above, Google.org is granting $4 million to promote AI literacy in underserved communities through the Central Square Foundation.
