Google has revealed plans to produce Pixel smartphones within India. This marks a significant move by the company to manufacture its devices within the country. The tech giants confirmed that they will start the manufacturing operations next year and hope to make it a significant part of the “Make-In-India” movement. “India is a priority market for Pixel,” said Google’s Rick Osterloh, Head of Devices & Services at the #GoogleForIndia event in New Delhi. Other than Google Pixel, Google’s Chromebooks will also be manufactured in India. Just last month, PC market leader HP collaborated with Google to manufacture Chromebooks in India. Chromebooks are affordable PCs running Google’s Chromebook OS and come with built-in accessibility and security features.
For the same, Google is partnering with domestic and international partners to manufacture Google hardware in India (Image Credit – Hardik Chhabra)
India’s Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in May held talks with Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai, at the company’s Mountain View, California headquarters. Their conversation reportedly focused on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative to promote local manufacturing and India’s government-supported push for technological advancements. A report by Counterpoint Research recently showed that India is now the second-biggest manufacturing hub for mobile phones due to heavy investment from original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and companies dealing with components and parts. 
No details about the locations have been made but according to many reports it will be either Uttar Pradesh or Chennai. Google is building its largest campus outside its Mountain View headquarters in Hyderabad. The campus can accommodate 18,000 individuals. Experts speculate and hope that the new manufacturing facility would be in Hyderabad to complement its largest office. With this move, Google follows in the footsteps of other prominent global tech companies like Apple. Cupertino-based Apple, for instance, has leveraged this program to expand its network of suppliers in India and significantly increased iPhone production to over $7 billion during the fiscal year ending in March 2023. Google revealed new launches, partnerships, and investments powered by generative AI technology.
Sanjay Gupta, country head and vice-president of Google India, said “We will soon start surfacing AI-powered overviews for over 100 crucial government programmes around employment, housing, healthcare, farming, women’s welfare, and more. We will also roll out Search features to help small businesses show up better in Search results with a more visual, relevant and easily-filterable product feed.”
Google revealed a collaboration with ONDC to assist farmer producer organisations in seamlessly selling their produce online, enhancing efficiency and accessibility. Google also introduced the ‘DigiKavach’ initiative, a collaborative effort with industry partners and dedicated experts to share insights and combat online financial fraud. Google hence becomes the latest tech-company to ditch Beijing for Delhi. India will potentially add more than 2,00,000 jobs next year in the mobile manufacturing and production industry. The economic impact of such investments will result in unforeseen, unbelievable and unimaginable rise of the Indian Economy.
