Google flags off its first APAC Google Safety Engineering Centre in Hyderabad

Time of India

a day ago

HYDERABAD: Tech giant Google unveiled its first Google Safety Engineering Centre (GSEC) in the Asia Pacific region and its fourth globally after Munich, Dublin and Malaga in Spain, at Hyderabad on Wednesday.
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Google said GSEC India will not just address the rapidly evolving threat landscape of India, which faces projected cybercrime losses of up to Rs 20,000 crore by 2025, but will also serve as a global hub of safety innovation by taking a comprehensive and proactive approach by combining AI-powered threat detection, ecosystem collaboration and forward looking policy measures.
GSEC India will operationalise Google's safety charter for India's AI-led transformation and serve as the operational heart where strategic commitments will transform into tangible solutions, it added.
The facility will operationalise advanced AI and large language models (LLMs) to power real-time scam alerts on Android via Gemini Nano, strengthen Google Play Protect, and enhance fraud detection across Google Pay, Search, and Gmail.
It will also tackle AI-driven deception through adversarial testing, AI-assisted red teaming, and tools like SynthID to watermark AI-generated content, Google said, adding that it will focus on ecosystem collaboration and intelligence sharing via platforms like the Global Signals Exchange (GSE).
GSEC India will also support education and user awareness initiatives tailored to India's scale and linguistic diversity, and will advance research in areas like Post-Quantum Cryptography through partnerships such as its work with IIT-Madras.
"The India GSEC represents a unique convergence of Google's global safety expertise, bringing together teams focused on privacy and security engineering, and advanced cybersecurity capabilities under one strategic umbrella to address India's distinct digital landscape," it said.
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"GSEC India will operationalise the three foundational pillars of Google's Safety Charter—keeping end users safe from online fraud and scams, strengthening cybersecurity for government and enterprise infrastructure, and building AI responsibly—while serving as a regional hub for developing solutions across the broader APAC region, Google added.
Inaugurating the GSEC, Telangana chief minister Anumula Revanth Reddy said it marks a pivotal moment in Telangana's journey to become a global cybersecurity innovation hub.
'This first-of-its-kind facility in the APAC region affirms Hyderabad's crucial role in developing privacy, safety and cyber-defence solutions for the next billion users, placing Telangana at the forefront of global digital safety efforts,' he said.
The CM said with Telangana's GSDP projected to reach Rs 16.5 lakh crore and IT/ITeS exports rising to Ra 2.7 lakh crore, supporting over 9.5 lakh high skill jobs, the GSEC's presence will attract top tier safety engineering talent and foster collaboration with academic institutions to tackle India's unique cybersecurity challenges while creating thousands of direct and indirect job opportunities, Reddy added.
IT & industries minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu said GSEC India demonstrates the power of public-private partnerships in building a secure digital infrastructure for the country and will have a transformative impact on strengthening Telangana's position as a premier destination for cutting-edge technology research and development.
"It demonstrates the power of public-private partnerships in building a secure digital infrastructure for our nation.
This center will serve as a catalyst for innovation in cybersecurity, responsible AI development, and digital safety—areas critical to India's vision of becoming a global technology leader," he said.
Heather Adkins, vice president of Engineering, Google Security, said GSEC India will serve as a global lighthouse for Google's digital safety and security efforts. "At Google, safety is built into everything we do, grounded in our 'secure by design, secure by default' philosophy.
AI represents an inflection point for digital security - a force multiplier that narrows the gap between defenders and attackers, even eliminating it entirely in some cases .
With GSEC India, we're situating these capabilities in India to serve its unique landscape and also be a lighthouse for our global security efforts,' she said.
Google India country manager and VP Preeti Lobana stressed on the importance of the centre in building trust in how users and enterprises access the digital landscape and for India's digital engine to keep growing.