Google hires former Indian govt. official as public policy head

Alphabet Inc’s Google has hired a new public policy head in India, Archana Gulati, who previously worked at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal think-tank and the country’s antitrust watchdog, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

A number of Indian government officials have been hired by Big Tech companieswhich are battling tighter data and privacy regulation, as well as competition law scrutiny, under Modi’s federal government.

Gulati is a seasoned official having worked until March 2021 as a joint secretary for digital communications at the Modi Government’s federal think tank, Niti Aayog, a body that is critical to government’s policy making across sectors.

Before that, between 2014 and 2016, she worked as a senior official at India’s antitrust body, the Competition Commission of India, according to her LinkedIn profile.

A Google India spokesperson confirmed the development to Reuters, but did not elaborate. Gulati did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

India’s antitrust watchdog is currently looking into Google’s business conduct in the market of smart TVs, its Android operating system as well as its in-app payments system.

Last year, Meta Platforms Inc. hired Rajiv Aggarwal who spent years working in India’s federal and state governments, to handle public policy.

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Yugal Kishore Sharma CEO, ONEOTT Intertainment Limited

Amazing and grim battle for survival. Guess it will end up in Supreme Court. All that NCLT asked Zee to do was to file a reply to Invesco petition for a EGM. Now this is getting too serious. So far Invesco has been hammered for demanding an EGM. What is Zee upto? Ofcourse my lawyer community knows better!