Google Highlights India’s Research-Driven AI Impact Across Key Sectors

New Delhi, Dec 17:Google today announced a series of new collaborations, research initiatives, and funding commitments to strengthen India’s rapidly growing AI ecosystem at its “Lab to Impact” dialogue, supported by the India AI Impact Summit 2026. The event, attended by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, underscored Google’s research-led approach to advancing Digital Public Infrastructure  and empowering researchers, developers, startups, and public institutions to address large-scale national challenges.

Speaking at the dialogue, Dr Manish Gupta, Senior Research Director, Google DeepMind, said;

“AI is humanity’s most powerful force for progress. At Google, we see its evolution shaped by three pivotal shifts accelerating scientific discovery, augmenting human capability, and India’s unique embrace of AI’s potential. From foundational research to ecosystem deployment and scaled impact, our full-stack approach is enabling India to lead a global AI-powered future, with innovations from Indian labs benefiting billions worldwide.”

Integrating AI into India’s Digital Public Infrastructure for Healthcare

To strengthen AI-driven healthcare innovation, Google announced  400,000 in funding to support new collaborations leveraging MedGemma to build India’s Health Foundation Models. These models aim to enhance healthcare efficiency and improve patient outcomes nationwide.

As an initial step, Ajna Lens, in collaboration with experts from AIIMS, will develop AI models for India-specific use cases in dermatology and OPD triaging. The outcomes will contribute directly to India’s Digital Public Infrastructure and be made accessible to the broader ecosystem. Additionally, researchers and clinicians from IISc Bengaluru will explore broader clinical applications of AI models.

Google is also partnering with the National Health Authority  to deploy advanced AI solutions that convert millions of fragmented and unstructured medical records such as clinical notes into the globally recognized FHIR standard. This initiative is expected to improve patient understanding of medical data, reduce administrative burdens, and enable more data-driven public healthcare policy decisions.

Further enhancing accessibility, Google is working with NHA to bring over 400,000 NHA-registered health facilities onto Google Maps and Search, enabling citizens to easily locate verified hospitals, clinics, and diagnostic labs.

Strengthening India’s AI Research Ecosystem

Over the past five years, Google has supported nearly 1,000 years of PhD-level research across more than 25 leading Indian institutions. Its global PhD Fellowship Program has supported 166 Indian scholars, with recent fellows leading impactful research spanning computer vision, foundational AI models, and mental health applications.

To further align with the Government of India’s vision of “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India,” Google.org announced 8 million in funding for four government-established AI Centres of Excellence:

• TANUH at IISc Bengaluru – AI solutions for non-communicable disease treatment

• Airawat Research Foundation, IIT Kanpur – AI-driven urban governance

• AI Centre of Excellence for Education, IIT Madras – Enhancing learning outcomes

• ANNAM.AI, IIT Ropar – Data-driven agriculture and farmer welfare solutions

In support of inclusive AI, Google announced a  2 million founding contribution to establish the Indic Language Technologies Research Hub at IIT Bombay, in memory of Professor Pushpak Bhattacharyya, a pioneer in Indic language technologies. The hub aims to ensure AI advancements reflect India’s linguistic diversity.

Empowering Developers and Startups with Open Models

Indian startups have rapidly adopted Google’s open foundational models. Gnani.AI and CoRover.AI are using Gemma to develop Voice AI and e-governance solutions in Indic languages. Google will provide 50,000 in funding to each startup to expand inclusion for Indian language users.

Additionally, Google has awarded a 50,000 grant to IIT Bombay to use Gemma for processing Indic-language health governance and policy documents, creating an India-Centric Trait Database relevant to diseases, phenotypes, and genetic conditions.

To broaden developer access, Google has uploaded all 22 Gemma models to AIKosh, the India AI Mission’s open data and model platform, enabling developers to build indigenous AI solutions aligned with the Make-in-India vision.

Deploying AI for India’s Pressing Social Challenges

Google continues to support mission-driven organizations deploying AI at scale. Using Google’s Open Health Stack, nonprofit Khushi Baby has conducted over 35 million tuberculosis screenings in Rajasthan this year alone. Independent research indicates AI-powered tools could enable India’s one million ASHA workers to deliver an additional 98 million rural patient visits annually, while potentially saving INR 390 billion around 12% of India’s out-of-pocket healthcare expenditure.

Google.org is providing 2.5 million to Wadhwani AI to pilot HealthVaani, a multilingual, LLM-powered conversational AI assistant supporting ASHA and Anganwadi workers, developed in partnership with the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and Women and Child Development.

Additionally, Google.org is contributing 2 million to support Garuda, a new Indian language model for agriculture. Garuda will power AgriVaani, a multilingual AI application offering farmers precise guidance on crop management, pest control, livestock care, and climate-resilient farming practices.

Ensuring Sustainable and Responsible AI Growth

Demonstrating its commitment to sustainable AI, Google announced a partnership with ReNew Energy to support a new 150 MW solar project in Rajasthan. Under a long-term agreement, Google will allocate environmental attribute certificates (EACs) to its value-chain emissions and work with suppliers to accelerate clean energy adoption.

This initiative builds on Google’s earlier renewable energy partnerships with Adani Group and Clean Max, which added 186 MW of wind and solar capacity to India’s grid, contributing to India’s goal of 500 GW of non-fossil fuel power by 2030.