Google announced a series of collaborations and funding commitments to enhance India’s AI ecosystem at its “Lab to Impact” dialogue, conducted alongside the India AI Impact Summit 2026.
The event, attended by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Education, highlighted Google’s research-focused approach to supporting India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and enabling the research, startup, and developer community to address national challenges.
Integrating AI into India’s Digital Public Infrastructure for healthcare
Google is providing $400,000 to support projects leveraging MedGemma to develop India’s Health Foundation Models. These models are designed to enhance healthcare efficiency and improve patient outcomes across the country.
Ajna Lens will collaborate with AIIMS specialists to create models targeting Dermatology and OPD Triaging. These models will feed into India’s DPI and be accessible to the broader ecosystem.
Researchers, AI experts, and clinicians from IISc will investigate wider clinical applications for AI models. Google is also partnering with the National Health Authority (NHA) to standardize millions of unstructured medical records into the FHIR format, aiming to reduce documentation burden, improve patient understanding, and enable informed policy decisions.
Additionally, Google will list over 400,000 NHA-registered health facilities—including hospitals, clinics, and labs—on Google Maps and Search to provide accurate, updated location information.
Strengthening India’s AI research ecosystem
Over the last five years, Google has supported nearly 1,000 years of PhD-level research across more than 25 premier Indian institutions. Through the global PhD Fellowship program, 166 Indian students have conducted research ranging from foundational computer vision models to AI tools for mental health.
Google.org is allocating $8 million to four AI Centres of Excellence established by the Government of India:
- TANUH, IISc Bangalore: AI solutions for non-communicable diseases.
- Airawat Research Foundation, IIT Kanpur: AI applications for urban governance.
- AI Centre of Excellence for Education, IIT Madras: AI tools to enhance learning outcomes.
- ANNAM.AI, IIT Ropar: Data-driven AI solutions for agriculture and farmer welfare.
Google is also contributing $2 million to the Indic Language Technologies Research Hub at IIT Bombay, established in memory of Professor Pushpak Bhattacharyya, to advance AI for India’s linguistic diversity.
Supporting developers and startups with open AI models
Indian startups are using Google’s Gemma foundational models for Indic language solutions. Gnani.AI and CoRover.AI have received $50,000 each to extend AI access for the Indian diaspora.
IIT Bombay received $50,000 to leverage Gemma for processing health governance documents and creating an India-Centric Trait Database, covering diseases, phenotypes, and genetic conditions relevant to the Indian population.
All 22 Gemma models are available on AIKosh, the India AI Mission’s open platform for data and models, enabling developers to build indigenous AI solutions aligned with India’s “Make-in-India” objectives.
Empowering changemakers to address India’s pressing challenges
Google is supporting initiatives that apply AI in public health and agriculture:
- HealthVaani: Wadhwani AI received a $2.5 million Google.org grant to pilot a multilingual conversational AI assistant for ASHA and Anganwadi workers, utilizing Gemini 2.5-Flash and Gemini Embedding Models for translation, answer generation, and retrieval.
- Garuda & AgriVaani: Wadhwani AI received $2 million Google.org funding to develop an Indian-language model and application for agriculture, offering advice on crops, livestock, pest management, and climate-resilient practices.
Using Google’s Open Health Stack, Khushi Baby conducted over 35 million TB screenings in Rajasthan, adhering to international standards and India’s digital health mission. Research indicates AI-based tools could save roughly ₹390 billion ($4.7 billion) annually and enable 98 million additional rural patient visits.
Sustainable deployment of AI
Google is collaborating with ReNew Energy to support a 150 MW solar project in Rajasthan, offsetting AI-related emissions. This builds on previous partnerships with Adani Group and Clean Max, which added 186 MW of renewable power to India’s grid, contributing to the country’s 2030 goal of 500 GW non-fossil fuel electricity.
Outlook
Google’s initiatives aim to expand India’s AI ecosystem across healthcare, research, education, agriculture, and language technologies. By funding research, providing open models, and supporting startups and changemakers, these efforts are expected to strengthen India’s AI capabilities, improve public health and agricultural outcomes, and promote inclusive, sustainable AI adoption.
Speaking at the event, Dr Manish Gupta, Senior Research Director, Google DeepMind stated:
AI is humanity’s most profound and powerful force for progress, and at Google, we see its global evolution driven by three pivotal shifts – its ability to accelerate scientific discovery, its advances enhancing human capability, and India’s unique embrace of AI’s potential. From foundational research to ecosystem deployment to scaled impact, our full-stack approach is equipping the country to lead a global AI-powered future, with innovations from India’s labs benefiting billions across the world.
Minister of Education, Government of India, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan stated:
India is approaching artificial intelligence as a strategic national capability, not as a short-term technology trend. The four AI Centres of Excellence have been conceived as a coordinated national research mission, advancing foundational research, responsible AI, and applied solutions that serve public purpose, and contributing to our larger aspiration of Viksit Bharat 2047. Building a globally competitive AI ecosystem requires not only public investment, but also strong institutional leadership and long-term partnerships with industry. This effort is supported by Google and Google.org through their USD 8 million contribution to the AI Centres of Excellence and a USD 2 million founding contribution to the Indic Language Technologies Research Hub at IIT Bombay.