IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw meets Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai; discusses India Stack & Make in India

Sundar Pichai said they enjoyed discussing the many ways the firm is working together on India's digital transformation

India's IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw met Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on May 9 at Googleplex, the tech giant's headquarters situated in Mountain View, California to discuss a range of topics including the country's 'Make in India' programme and India Stack.

"Met @sundarpichai at the @Google HQ. Good discussion on India Stack and Make in India program" the union minister said in a tweet on May 9.

In a reply, Pichai thanked the minister for visiting their headquarters "Enjoyed discussing the many ways we're working together on India's digital transformation, and the opportunities ahead" he said in a tweet.

This development comes nearly five months after Pichai visited India for the company's annual Google for India event in December 2022. During his visit, he met Vaishnaw as well as the country's prime minister Narendra Modi, pledging their support to India's G20 presidency to "advance an open, connected internet that works for all"

Pichai has also lauded India's digital public goods such as Aadhaar, United Payments Interface and Digilocker in the recent past.

During a conversation with the union IT minister at the Google for India event in December 2022, Pichai had said that he often cited the UPI example in other countries of the world. "We built Google Pay in India based on the UPI stack and now we are bringing that to other countries around the world," he said.

Pichai had also stated that India has a leadership role to play in terms of tech regulations, given the scale and the technology leadership it will have. The country however must balance the safety of people online and open architecture on the internet with a regulatory framework that offers companies certainty and aids innovation, he said at the event.

"Through it all hopefully, India will also be a big export economy that will benefit from an open and connected internet and I think getting that balance right will be important," he said.

That said, the tech giant is currently in a standoff with the Competition Commission of India (CCI) over the latter's recent antitrust directives related to its Android and Google Play business.