At Google I/O Connect India 2025, held in Bengaluru, the tech giant announced a range of AI-focused initiatives to support India’s fast-growing developer community. Key highlights included the localisation of Gemini 2.5 Flash with India-based data centres, the launch of Agentic AI tools in Firebase Studio, and a partnership with Unity for game development training. Google also introduced open-source Gemma 3 models and new collaborations with India AI Mission startups. With enhancements to Google Maps APIs and the return of its Gen AI Exchange Hackathon, the event reinforced Google’s commitment to empowering Indian developers with advanced tools and global opportunities.
1. Gemini 2.5 Flash: On‑shore, Low‑latency AI
Google confirmed that its fastest model, Gemini 2.5 Flash, will be hosted entirely on India-based data centers. This move delivers on‑shore AI processing to meet data residency, security, and low‑latency requirements for regulated sectors such as finance, healthcare, and public services.
2. Agentic AI in Firebase Studio
The company introduced Agentic AI tools within Firebase Studio, offering optimized templates, workspace forking, and seamless Firebase backend deployments. These features enable developers to generate full‑stack AI applications via multimodal prompts—text, image, video, and speech—accelerating development cycles.
3. Open‑source Gemma Models + India AI Mission Startups
Google launched Gemma 3n, an open multimodal model supporting 140 languages and optimized for low‑RAM devices. It also announced collaborations with three India AI Mission startups—Sarvam, Soket AI, and Gnani—to build "Make‑in‑India" AI solutions using Gemma. Notably, Sarvam has developed Sarvam‑Translate, a long‑form translation tool.
Google has also announced a partnership with BharatGen at IIT Bombay to jointly work on building automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech models for Indian languages. The collaboration aims to strengthen the development of indigenous language technologies, according to Manish Gupta, Senior Director for India and APAC at Google DeepMind.
4. Google Play × Unity Game Developer Training
In partnership with Unity and the Game Developer Association of India (GDAI), Google launched a free certification programme offering over 30 hours of training in game development. Initially rolled out to 500 developers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, it will expand nationwide.
5. Expanded Maps Data & Pricing for Developers
Google announced developer‑friendly updates to Google Maps Places API, with access to over 250 million global locations, India‑specific pricing for UI kits, and AI‑powered summaries—tools designed to enhance local generative AI applications.
6. Google Supported Over 35 Lakh Jobs In India
Google reiterated that the Google Play and Android ecosystem generated ₹4 lakh crore in app revenue in India in 2024, supporting approximately 35 lakh jobs, including over 10 lakh developer jobs.
Watch all the announcements below:
These announcements highlight Google's strategy to localise AI infrastructure, provide advanced developer tools, support open‑source innovation, train game‑dev talent, enhance Maps, and foster practical AI solutions—all aimed at empowering India’s growing developer base.
