Sreenivasa Reddy to become Google’s head of India policy: Report

Archana Gulati, who oversaw Google’s strategy for India, departed the organisation last year.

Alphabet’s Google intends to engage a manufacturing and policy veteran as its senior government affairs executive in India to handle legal concerns and bring hardware assembly to the country. According to people with knowledge of the issue who wanted to remain anonymous since the material is private, Sreenivasa Reddy, a senior engineering executive now employed by Microsoft, is most likely to join Google by the end of this year. Prior to this, he supervised government relations at the regional office of the Swedish company Ericsson AB, which makes telecom equipment, and he held key positions on Apple’s India regulatory team, both of which helped to boost domestic manufacturing.

Reddy’s experience will be helpful to Google, which is searching for Indian partners to build its Pixel series of smartphones as it attempts to diversify away from China. Following the production of Pixel in India, local production of further Google hardware products, such as speakers, is possible. Additionally, the executive will help Google overcome regulatory challenges. The Mountain View, California-based company has been accused by the Indian government of breaking antitrust rules by allegedly abusing its monopolistic position in the market for mobile operating systems. Reddy and Google representatives in India were contacted but did not respond. The person in charge of Google’s India strategy, Archana Gulati, left the company last year.

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Google is one of several big multinational IT firms that regard India as a key market for expansion. The company is looking for ways to lower the price of its Android smartphones and increase the number of regional languages available on its website in an effort to draw more customers in the country with the biggest population. According to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who made the announcement during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent trip to the US, the company intends to construct a worldwide financial technology base in Gujarat, the home state of Modi. The name GIFT City refers to Gujarat International Finance Tech-City.