Sundar Pichai coming to India; govt to discuss 'Made in India' Pixel phones

Google assembling its Pixel smartphones in India would be one of the key issues of discussion between Sundar Pichai, CEO of the tech giant and also its parent Alphabet, and top government officials when he visits the country next week.

Asked about Pichai’s visit, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told Business Standard: “Yes, we will be meeting him to discuss a wide range of issues. We will discuss the manufacturing of Google phones in India, developing an app developer ecosystem, cybersecurity, the use of Indian languages, etc.”

An e-mail sent to Google India on the agenda of these meetings did not receive any response. But sources said the issue of various penalties imposed on the company by the Competition Commission of India recently for allegedly abusing its dominant position via the Google Play policy may come up during Google's discussions with the government. According to a recent New York Times report, Google is planning to shift half the production of the latest Pixel 7 phones from its Foxconn facilities in south China to Vietnam. The meeting with Vaishnaw would be significant as the Indian government has been pursuing global companies to shift part of their production for the global market in India as part of the ‘China-plus-one strategy’.

If the talks fructify, Google would be the third major global mobile device player using India as an export-oriented manufacturing hub.

The other big players are Apple, which has already exported Rs 20,000 crore worth of iPhones between April-December this year, and Samsung India. Both Apple and Samsung are eligible for incentives under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. The government recently even pushed Chinese companies, which dominate the Indian market, to up their exports from here and asked them to prepare a clear plan.

Pichai’s India visit has been preceded by a few top Google executives visiting the country. They also met government officials. These executives included Wilson White, vice-president of public policy, and Karan Bhatia, global head of policy at Google. In 2020, Google committed an investment of $10 billion in India.

Google’s CEO visit comes against the backdrop of the CCI’s recent order slapping a Rs 936.44-crore penalty on it, allegedly for abusing its dominant position with its Google Play policy.

Google Play is the main distribution channel used by app developers targeting the Android ecosystem. The CCI order pointed out that making access to the app store dependent on mandatory usage of the Google Play billing system for paid apps and in-app purchases constitutes the imposition of an unfair condition on app developers.

The CCI had previously slapped a Rs 1,337.76-crore penalty on Google for abusing its dominant position in various areas. The company is expected to contest these decisions.

Google in the mobile device space is a far smaller player; it is nowhere near the top five players in the global smartphone market. According to various estimations by experts, it in the past six years sold less than 30 million phones across the world. According to Canalys, it had a 2 per cent share of the North American market in Q2 2022. Even in India, it is a marginal player in this business.

But Google has a 7.73 per cent equity stake in Jio Platforms, for which it forked out $4.5 billion in 2020. It has also tied up with its telecom arm Reliance Jio to jointly develop mobile phones to address the affordable 4G smartphone market. The phones based on an optimised Android operating system and bundled with data are already available for customers but have seen a lukewarm response, according to experts.

A similar agreement to build and develop 5G phones may be on the anvil, too. Reliance Jio has been rolling out 5G services in the country since October.

Pichai is bringing with him a top team from the company that will participate in the flagship event ‘Google for India’ in Delhi on December 19 and include Royal Hansen, vice-president of engineering for privacy, safety and security.