At the Google I/O Connect Bengaluru 2024 event on Wednesday, Google demonstrated a slew of new tools, programmes and partnerships designed to empower Indian developers and startups. Central to this initiative is tech giant’s collaboration with the MeitY Startup Hub, aimed at training 10,000 Indian startups in AI.
The partnership will provide Indian startups with valuable resources, including Google Cloud credits, an AI-first programming curriculum, and the launch of a nationwide GenAI Hackathon and AI Startup Bootcamp.
Google is also expanding access to powerful AI models, such as Gemini and Gemma, which offer advanced features like the two million token context window in Gemini 1.5 Pro and the next-generation capabilities of Gemma 2.
This expansion is expected to support India’s position in the global AI landscape, with more than 1.5 million developers worldwide already utilising these models through Google AI Studio. India has one of the largest developer bases on this platform.
In a statement, Ambharish Kenghe, Vice President, Google said, “We're committed to empowering Indian innovators to harness AI’s full potential, creating solutions that not only address India's unique needs but also shape the future of AI globally. The opportunities with multimodal, mobile, and multilingual AI are immense, and we're thrilled to be a part of India's AI journey.”
Language Innovation
In a bid to further support language innovation, Google DeepMind India announced significant updates, including the expansion of Project Vaani in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). This project now offers developers access to over 14,000 hours of speech data across 58 languages, collected from 80,000 speakers in 80 districts.
Additionally, the introduction of IndicGenBench will help evaluate the generation capabilities of large language models (LLMs) on Indic languages, while the open-sourced CALM (Composition of Language Models) framework allows developers to combine specialised language models with Gemma models. The new MatFormer framework further enhances developers’ ability to mix and match AI models for optimal performance and resource efficiency.
For Developers
Google also rolled out new developer tools and enhancements, such as Google Wallet APIs, to simplify the integration of loyalty programs, tickets and gift cards.
The tech giant introduced India-specific pricing for the Google Maps Platform, with up to 70 per cent lower costs on most APIs. Collaborating with the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), Google is offering developers building for ONDC up to 90 per cent off on select Google Maps Platform APIs, in an effort to make it more affordable and accessible.
