Alphabet’s Google has employed a brand new public coverage head in India, Archana Gulati, who beforehand labored at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s federal think-tank and the nation’s antitrust watchdog, a supply with direct information of the matter instructed Reuters.
A lot of Indian authorities officers have been employed by Huge Tech corporations that are battling tighter knowledge and privateness regulation, in addition to competitors legislation scrutiny, beneath Modi’s federal authorities.
Gulati is a long-term Indian authorities worker, having labored till March 2021 as a joint secretary for digital communications at Modi’s federal assume tank, NITI Aayog, a physique that’s crucial to authorities’s coverage making throughout sectors.
Earlier than that, between 2014 and 2016, she labored as a senior official at India’s antitrust physique, the Competitors Fee of India, in accordance with her LinkedIn profile.
A Google India spokesperson confirmed the event to Reuters, however didn’t elaborate. Gulati didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The supply declined to be named because the hiring choice was not public.
India’s antitrust watchdog is presently wanting into Google’s enterprise conduct out there of sensible TVs, its Android working system in addition to its in-app funds system.
Final 12 months, Meta Platforms employed Rajiv Aggarwal — who spent years working in India’s federal and state governments — as its head of coverage.
One other former Indian antitrust and federal authorities official, Anand Jha, in 2019 joined Walmart as India public coverage officer. He presently manages authorities relations for Blackstone in India.
