Google has unveiled a new set of funding commitments aimed at deepening India’s artificial intelligence ecosystem, with a strong emphasis on India language technologies, healthcare innovation, and agriculture-focused AI solutions. Announced at the “Lab to Impact: Google on Health, Science and Society” dialogue, the initiatives reflect the company’s growing focus on supporting locally relevant, India-first AI development as part of its broader long-term strategy in the country.
As part of the announcement, Google said it will provide grants of $50,000 each to startups gnani.ai and CoRover. Both companies are building AI models on Google’s open Gemma platform, with gnani.ai focusing on voice-based Indic language AI and CoRover developing governance-oriented conversational AI systems. These grants are intended to support early-stage innovation that improves accessibility, inclusion, and public service delivery through AI in Indian languages.
In parallel, Google will extend a separate $50,000 grant to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. The funding will be used to process Indic language health governance and policy documents and to develop an India-centric trait database. This database will compile information on diseases, phenotypes, and genetic conditions that are particularly relevant to the Indian population. According to Google, the initiative is designed to enable research that better reflects local healthcare realities and strengthens the foundation for India-specific AI models in the health domain.
A significantly larger commitment has been made to Wadhwani AI, which will receive $4.5 million from Google to support the development of multilingual, AI-powered applications across healthcare and agriculture. Wadhwani AI has been working at the intersection of technology and social impact, and the funding is expected to accelerate the deployment of scalable AI tools that can address challenges such as disease detection, crop productivity, and access to essential services in multiple Indian languages.
Taken together, these funding announcements underline Google’s intent to move beyond generic AI development and invest in solutions tailored to India’s linguistic diversity and sector-specific needs. The initiatives also align with Google’s broader expansion plans in the country, following its $15 billion investment announced in October 2025 to build an AI data centre in Andhra Pradesh.
By combining infrastructure investment with targeted support for startups, research institutions, and mission-driven organisations, Google is positioning itself as a key enabler of India’s next phase of AI-led innovation—one that is grounded in local context, inclusive by design, and focused on real-world impact.
