Artificial intelligence (AI) alone could potentially add $500 billion or half a trillion dollars to India’s economy, according to Google India Country Manager and VP, Sajay Gupta.
Gupta, who has previously worked as MD of Star India and The Walt Disney Company India, noted (while at the ‘ABP Infocom – The Next Normal’ event):
“The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to use every tool at our disposal to address the challenges and opportunities before us.”
According to Gupta, AI can help in improving various processes such as the forecasting of floods and providing more accurate diagnosis of diseases. Google India has reportedly provided $10 billion for expanding the nation’s digital footprint.
Like in many other countries, the search engine giant dominates or is a major player in several key market segments in India. As confirmed by local media outlets, Google Pay currently holds around 43% of the country’s market share, followed by digital payments giant PhonePe.
Notably, India has been overtaken by the US which is currently Google Pay’s largest generator of new users, according to Apptopia data.
However, Google Pay adoption has been growing steadily in India with almost 200,000 new users in just the past week. The app was introduced around 7 years back in India as a basic payments service. Since then, the tech firm has updated its app with many new features. Indian users have downloaded the digital payments app millions of times.
Google Pay now comes with several useful features such as “tap to pay” and personal finance tools. It was ranked as the #1 finance app in Apple’s App Store and in Google Play in the US.
Meanwhile, in India, Google Pay was ranked number 1 in terms of total number of transactions performed in November 2020. The app handled 96 million transactions, according to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
As covered in November 2020, Google, part of Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) is pushing deeper into Fintech with a redesigned Google Pay App in a natural step for one of the largest tech firms in the world.
Caesar Sengupta, General Manager & VP, Payments and Next Billion Users for Google, said last month that Google is “taking an important step forward in our quest to make money simple, secure and helpful.”
He added:
“Starting in the U.S., we’re launching a redesigned Google Pay app on Android and iOS. The new app is designed around your relationships with people and businesses. It helps you save money and gives you insights into your spending. It’s built with multiple layers of security to keep your money and information private and safe. And in 2021, it will give you the chance to apply for a new kind of digital bank account with trusted financial institutions.”