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

New Delhi| Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is on an 11-day visit to her US and Peru these days. She began the tour on Sunday in San Francisco, where she met Indian expatriates and held meetings with heads of several big tech companies. Also on Monday, Sitharaman talked to officials and investors of major companies of Silicon Valley. They discussed new opportunities for India-US cooperation in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), digital infrastructure, energy and education.

Met Anjani Midha and Raghu Raghuram
Sitharaman met Anjani Midha, general partner of venture capital firm a16z, and Raghu Raghuram, CEO of tech company VMware where Midha and Raghuram praised the changes taking place in the field of AI and technology in India. They also expressed desire for cooperation with India. Sitharaman asked them to partner for the use of AI in sectors like education and health.

Appreciation of Digital India initiative
The Finance Minister further met Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurien. Kurien appreciated India’s Digital India initiative and expressed his desire to see India emerging as a global AI hub. He informed that Google Cloud will work on completely carbon-free energy by 2030 and also discussed plans to invest in India.

Emphasis on promoting AI
Apart from this, in her meeting with Debanjan Saha, CEO of AI tech company Data Robot, Sitharaman gave information about the efforts made by the Government of India to promote AI and digital infrastructure. This includes the IndiaAI Mission, AI technology in local languages and setting up of an AI center at IIT Jodhpur.

Sitharaman had lunch with investors
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 explained about the reforms being undertaken by the government to facilitate investment in India. He informed that the Government of India is working on a Rs 1 lakh crore private sector driven R & D scheme, which will promote innovation and technological development.

Emphasis on the goal of a developed India by 2047
Also Sitharaman also gave a speech at Stanford University on the topic ‘India developed by 2047’ and Prof. Discussed India’s development journey in fireside chat with Steve Davis. Let us tell you that the Indian Finance Minister will be in Washington DC from today till 25th April, where she will participate in the Spring Meetings of IMF and World Bank, G20 Finance Ministers Meeting and other global economic discussions.