Discussion on making India a global hub of AI and investment; Nirmala Sitharaman held important meetings in US

Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is on an 11-day visit to the US and Peru. She began this tour in San Francisco on Sunday by interacting with Indian immigrants as well as conducting meetings with the top executives in some major tech companies. On Monday as well, Sitharaman met officials and investors from prominent companies in Silicon Valley. In talks with them, she discussed new avenues for cooperation between India and America in sectors like Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital infrastructure, energy, and education.

Sitharaman met Anjani Midha, venture capital fund a16z's General Partner, and tech company CEO Raghu Raghuram. Midha and Raghuram appreciated developments going on in the field of AI and technology in India. Also, voiced their wish to cooperate with India. Sitharaman invited them to join hands in applying AI in education and healthcare.

The Minister for Finance again met with Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurien. Kurien appreciated India's Digital India drive and wanted to see India become an AI hub for the world. According to him, Google Cloud is committed to going fully carbon-free by 2030 and also discussed making an investment in India.

Apart from this, in a meeting with Debanjan Saha, CEO of AI tech company Data Robot, Sitharaman informed about the efforts made by the Government of India to promote AI and digital infrastructure. This includes IndiaAI Mission, AI technology in local languages, ​​​​and the establishment of an AI center at IIT Jodhpur.

During the meeting with Sitharaman, Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth described India's AI efforts as a global role model and expressed his desire to partner with India. Sitharaman also participated in a lunch roundtable with investors, in which she talked about the reforms being done by the government to facilitate investment in India. She informed that the Government of India is working on a private sector-driven R&D scheme of Rs 1 lakh crore, which will promote innovation and technological development.

Sitharaman also gave a speech on the topic 'Developed India by 2047' at Stanford University and discussed India's development journey in a fireside chat with Prof. Steve Davis. The Indian Finance Minister will be in Washington, DC, from today to April 25, where she will participate in the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings,the  G20 Finance Ministers' Meeting, and other global economic discussions.