Google announced a series of plans intended to create AI infrastructure that is compliant with Indian norms and accessible to the education system and the local community during I/O Connect India 2026 hosted in Bengaluru
Google used its annual I/O Connect India event in Bengaluru on Tuesday to roll out a range of AI initiatives tailored specifically to the Indian market, covering education, enterprise cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, healthcare research, and developer tools in what the company framed as its most India-focused announcement set to date.
A Gemini-Powered App for Teachers
The headline consumer launch was ATL Saathi, a desktop web application developed by Google DeepMind India that gives teachers a Gemini-powered assistant trained on curriculum developed by Atal Tinkering Labs under NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission. The app is designed to help teachers create hands-on learning experiments for students. It is being rolled out to 100 schools this year, with a long-term target of 10,000 schools.
Localised Cloud and Data Sovereignty
To address data localisation requirements, Google announced that Indian enterprises and public sector organisations can now run Gemini models on Google Distributed Cloud from within Indian data centres, fully disconnected from the public internet. This is aimed directly at regulated industries and government bodies that require data to remain within Indian borders. Gemini 3.5 Flash has also been made available to Indian enterprises and startups through the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.
Cybersecurity and Healthcare
Google is bringing Sec-Gemini v3, its specialised cybersecurity agent, to trusted government and enterprise testers including Flipkart, enabling security teams to investigate incidents at machine speed. In healthcare, researchers at AIIMS Delhi now have access to Google’s multimodal MedGemma models to develop India-specific tools for leprosy and sexual and reproductive health.
Gemini Live now has support for 25 Indian dialects and languages such as Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Sanskrit. IIT Madras and IIT Delhi joined forces with Google to work on research related to agentic safety and develop Guardian Agents that would help to protect institutions from AI-related threats.
