Addressing the event, Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said that for millions of Indians, their first experience of the internet came through Google services such as Search, Android, YouTube, Maps, Chrome and Google Pay. He said Google has transformed how students learn, businesses grow, governments deliver services and billions of people access knowledge every day. Calling Google's contribution extraordinary, he urged closer collaboration to make Karnataka one of the world's largest laboratories for Google. He encouraged developers to build boldly, entrepreneurs to dream big, researchers to continue innovating and students to keep learning, while emphasizing that Karnataka has consistently played a leading role in shaping the future of technology and will continue building a future that is innovative, inclusive and trusted.
Google India Country Manager Preeti Lobana said India is adopting artificial intelligence faster than almost anywhere else, with developers already deploying AI across multiple sectors. She said that as the world enters the agentic era, where artificial intelligence moves beyond answering questions to securely executing tasks, Google's priority is to provide the infrastructure and safety mechanisms required for responsible growth. She said the company is delivering flexible on-premise cloud environments for highly regulated sectors, open security protocols for developers and localized tools for healthcare and education to ensure that the next generation of Indian innovation is secure, trusted and built on locally relevant foundations.
Manish Gupta, Senior Director for India and Asia-Pacific at Google DeepMind, said the true measure of artificial intelligence is not the size of its models but the positive transformation it creates. He said India is leading AI adoption across every level of the economy, from local businesses to national healthcare initiatives. By bringing frontier artificial intelligence, on-premise capabilities and a strong commitment to safety, Google aims to accelerate this momentum while enabling learners, educators, developers and innovators to lead India's AI ambitions.
Google also announced two major education initiatives designed to expand access to advanced artificial intelligence learning. Google DeepMind is introducing its AI Research Foundations curriculum, a free 56-hour programme that trains learners to build and fine-tune Large Language Models while conducting advanced AI research. Participants who complete the programme will receive industry-recognized Google Cloud Skill badges and certificates. The curriculum will be available through Google's Skills platform, while partnerships with NASSCOM and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, will help scale the programme across educational institutions throughout India. In addition, AVPN, a network of social investors, will collaborate with local partners to deliver the programme through the Google.org Asia-Pacific AI Opportunity Fund.
Google DeepMind has also launched ATL Saathi, expanding its collaboration with the Atal Innovation Mission. The desktop web application provides teachers with a Gemini-powered assistant that supports the delivery of the Atal Tinkering Labs curriculum while helping create practical experiments for students. ATL Saathi will initially be introduced in 100 schools this year, with the long-term objective of reaching the 10,000 schools served by the Atal Tinkering Labs programme.
Expanding access to artificial intelligence across India, Google announced that Gemini Live now supports 25 Indian languages and dialects, including Sanskrit, Bhojpuri and Maithili. To strengthen enterprise adoption, the company is enabling Indian businesses, regulated industries and public sector organizations to operate Gemini on Google Distributed Cloud from data centres located within India, supporting compliance with localization requirements.
To strengthen cybersecurity in the era of agentic artificial intelligence, Google is introducing Sec-Gemini v3, a specialized cybersecurity agent, to trusted government and enterprise testers, including Flipkart. The AI-powered system is capable of analyzing complex security information and assisting organizations in investigating cybersecurity incidents at machine speed.
Google is also open-sourcing CAPSEM, or Capabilities Security for Agents, a secure runtime environment designed to help startups build secure agentic artificial intelligence applications. CAPSEM isolates every AI agent within its own virtual machine, ensuring that even if an agent is compromised or exposed to malicious prompts, the wider system remains protected.
To improve trust, security and interoperability across the emerging agentic artificial intelligence ecosystem, Google is advancing open industry standards. The Device Bound Session Credentials standard prevents stolen session cookies from being misused by cybercriminals, while the Agents-to-Payments framework, operating alongside the open Agent2Agent protocol, enables secure and accountable low-value financial transactions of less than USD 100 conducted by artificial intelligence agents.
Google has further expanded its research partnerships by collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras to advance research in agentic artificial intelligence safety. The collaborations will focus on early threat detection and the development of next-generation Guardian Agents designed to reduce institutional security risks.
The company also highlighted findings from third-party research showing that 91 percent of surveyed Google Play developers using Google artificial intelligence tools reported that these technologies directly or indirectly increased their revenue. The research also found that 76 percent of adults expressed interest in using artificial intelligence tools for "vibe coding," allowing them to create applications using natural conversational language.
To strengthen India's application development ecosystem, Google announced that it is bringing the Google Play Academy curriculum to 10,000 developers and application creators through partnerships with the governments of Rajasthan, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. The programme will equip participants with the latest knowledge in agentic artificial intelligence while helping them build, launch and scale successful application and game businesses.
The announcements made at Google I/O Connect India 2026 underline Google's long-term commitment to strengthening India's artificial intelligence ecosystem through education, cybersecurity, enterprise infrastructure, localization support and developer empowerment. By combining advanced AI technologies with strong safety standards, academic partnerships and localized capabilities, the company aims to accelerate responsible innovation while supporting India's growing position as a global leader in artificial intelligence.
About The Author
Comment List