India is experiencing huge investments from all the big giants of technology, specifically Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. Despite Trump’s announcement to prioritize American nationals over all other nationalities, why are these tech giants tilting toward India? Let’s talk about these massive investment deals between India and Microsoft.
Satya Nadella and Narendra Modi Meeting
Satya Nadella, being the CEO of Microsoft, met with Narendra Modi and announced huge investments in India. Microsoft is working a lot on development in cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Microsoft has decided to reserve an investment of 23 billion dollars in foreign countries to develop artificial intelligence. A major portion of this investment is reserved for India, and the amount is 17.5 billion dollars. This is one of the greatest investments of Microsoft in any foreign country.
Amazon and Google Tilt Towards India
Amazon, which is one of the biggest names in e-commerce, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, has announced a 35 billion dollar investment in India to develop technology and AI innovation. Amazon targets to create more job opportunities. In October, Google also announced a 15 billion dollars investment in India to build an AI data hub.
Amazon has already invested 40 billion dollars in India. Amazon wants to grow the export infrastructure of India. Amazon has a strong footprint in India. Outside America, India is at the top, where Amazon has the largest investment zones. Amazon has claimed that it has improved the Indian exports to 80 billion dollars and developed 15 million small businesses in India.
Trump’s Meeting With Technology Heads
After becoming president, Trump met with the heads of all technology companies like, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google. During his meeting, he advised them to shift their focus towards the American market and provide jobs to American nationals only. He further advised them to refrain from hiring foreign nationals from India.
Rare Earth Minerals are the basis of the Chip manufacturing industry, and we have seen a big clash between America and China. Although China is still rich in such rare earth minerals but America is trying to compete by collaborating with other countries like Pakistan, Ukraine, Japan, and Australia.
Simultaneously, Donald Trump has also adopted a strict visa policy for Indians. He not only asked companies to avoid Indian nationals but also adopted a limit of one hundred thousand dollars deposit for people coming to America on an HIV visa. There is still an option for companies to hire Indians while working from home. We have seen that many workers are being dismissed from jobs in America. So, a clash between Indian and American workers in America is observed.
Reasons Behind The Tilt of American Companies Towards India
When we consider the reasons behind the interest of large tech companies in America in India, we find the following reasons:
- The human resources in India are comparatively larger in number and cheaper than in Europe and America. So, the tech companies prioritize hiring individuals on comparatively low salaries from India.
- The wave of nationalism is already very strong in India. Most of the CEOs of such large companies as Microsoft, Google, and others are Indians. They used to hire individuals from their home country.
- The freelancers in India are very large in number. Their IT exports are almost 200 billion dollars.
- Donald Trump is also in a trade war with the Europeans. Trump is forcing European nations to tilt towards American nationals regarding job opportunities. So, as a result, European nationals are not ready to feel this pressure, and as a result, they tilt towards other nations like India for technology-related hirings.
Modi and Satya Nadella Meeting Outcomes
According to the agreement, a large amount of investment is to be expected in India. Through this investment, a large number of data centers will be established in India. More focus will be on skills development through Artificial Intelligence. The working class of India will be targeted. They will be trained to upgrade their skills and CVs, so they might be able to work in the biggest technology giants in the world. They will be provided with smart tools via the phone. These tools will make their work easy.
The sovereign capability of India will be improved according to this meeting. This means that the data centers will be controlled by India. The Indian data will be stored in India. The technology giants like Microsoft want to develop data centers to help the Indian government in improving the social status of their people, to get information about the workers’ availability, but somewhere behind the doors, they will have some problems. The politics in Southeast Asia, especially in India and Pakistan, is not that simple. Here, elections are managed, and rigging complaints are also common. So, there are possibilities that after getting control over the data of Indians, the Indian government may manipulate this information for their personal gains during election campaigns. This data can also be sold to any service-providing company for their marketing purpose.
Such actions from companies like Microsoft may be a clear message of NO to Trump, but this is also necessary for them to invest in some other countries as part of their policies. According to Microsoft, more than 22000 workers are working in Hyderabad, Pune, and Chennai. Microsoft is interested in expanding its operations in these cities. Microsoft has also declared India to be the most important country in its list of adopting Artificial Intelligence Adoption.
Through AI integration, Microsoft wants to target different fields. They want to integrate AI throughout the field with the purpose of providing ease at all levels. People with comparatively less education will be helped through different apps to make their CVs, understand the languages to eradicate language barriers, and many other features will be introduced as a result of this tech deal. Microsoft, along with the Indian national career services, wants to connect 310 million informal workers, the workers who don’t go to a regular office for any specific job.
Microsoft wants to upgrade the social protection rate of India from 24% to 64%. This will help the government to improve and upgrade the social status of the lower classes. Till 2030, Microsoft is interested in training more than 20 million Indians to use Artificial Intelligence effectively. Microsoft is also planning to protect the data of Indians to avoid the sale of their data on the dark web.
So, overall, they want to develop strong bonds with the government of India, and as a result, they are making the Indian government strong. Apparently, it seems that India will be sovereign in data protection, but there might be some difficulties for the local Indians regarding their data. The government can use its data to segregate people, for massive arrests of political opponents, and many other things.
Please let us know in the comments section whether AI advancement has empowered governments or the general public. Has AI made the surveillance of people easy?