In a significant move to bolster India's position in the global artificial intelligence landscape, Google has unveiled a comprehensive package of financial grants and strategic partnerships. The announcement, made at the company's "Lab to Impact" dialogue on Tuesday, December 16, and supported by the India AI Impact Summit 2026, underscores a deep commitment to realizing the national vision of "Make AI in India and Make AI work for India."
Core Funding for AI Research and Development
The cornerstone of this initiative is a substantial $8 million funding package from Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm. This grant is earmarked for four AI Centers of Excellence established by the Indian government, each targeting a critical sector for national development.
The institutions and their focus areas are:
- TANUH (IISc Bangalore): Developing scalable AI solutions for the effective treatment of non-communicable diseases.
- Airawat Research Foundation (IIT Kanpur): Conducting research on AI to transform urban governance.
- AI Centre of Excellence for Education (IIT Madras): Creating innovative solutions to enhance learning and teaching outcomes.
- ANNAM.AI (IIT Ropar): Focusing on data-driven solutions for agriculture and farmer welfare.
Dr. Manish Gupta, Senior Research Director at Google DeepMind, emphasized the transformative potential of this partnership, stating, "AI is humanity's most profound and powerful force for progress... India's unique embrace of AI's potential is equipping the country to lead a global AI-powered future."
Transforming Healthcare and Digital Infrastructure
Beyond the core research grants, Google has detailed several collaborations aimed at integrating AI into India's Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), with a special focus on healthcare.
A $400,000 grant has been allocated to support the use of MedGemma for building India's Health Foundation Models. In a pivotal collaboration with the National Health Authority (NHA), Google will deploy advanced AI to convert millions of fragmented, unstructured medical records into the international, machine-readable FHIR standard. This promises to revolutionize health data management and accessibility.
Furthermore, Google is assisting the NHA in bringing over 400,000 registered health facilities onto Google Maps and Search. This effort ensures the public can easily find official, updated information about health centers, improving access to critical services.
Empowering India's Linguistic Diversity with AI
Recognizing the importance of language in making technology inclusive, Google announced a $2 million founding contribution to establish the new Indic Language Technologies Research Hub at IIT Bombay. This hub is designed to ensure AI advancements serve India's vast linguistic diversity.
In a related development, all 22 of Google's foundational open models, known as Gemma, have been uploaded to AIKosh, the India AI Mission's open data and model platform. To spur innovation, Indian startups that leverage Gemma for creating Indic language solutions will receive $50,000 in funding.
Additional significant grants include a $2.5 million grant to Wadhwani AI for piloting an LLM-based conversational AI assistant, and a separate $2 million grant to the same organization to develop a new Indian language model specifically for agriculture.
This multi-faceted commitment from Google represents a holistic push to embed AI across India's key societal pillars—from healthcare and agriculture to education and governance. By funding cutting-edge research, strengthening public digital infrastructure, and championing linguistic inclusion, these initiatives aim to build a robust, homegrown AI ecosystem that can address local challenges and set a global benchmark.
