NEW DELHI: Sundar Pichai , the India-born chief executive of the world’s largest Internet company Google, has described the Modi government’s demonetisation exercise as a bold and courageous move that could propel the country to the forefront of digital payments “I have spent my life developing platforms. Every time you drive a platform shift, it has a big multiplicative effect, leveraged effect. Digitising a country of the scale of India, and making it work well, truly will have a beneficial effect,” said Pichai, who is currently in India on awork-cum-personal trip.The Google CEO said his company will work overtime to evolve products for a more ‘digitised’ Indian economy. “We are closely looking at UPI (Unified Payments Interface), and ways in which our products and services including Android can support it (digitisation) better.” Forty four-year-old Pichai brushed away fears about protectionism in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory in the US and the Brexit vote.“I have always felt the US to be an open and inclusive country. I don’t expect any of that to change,” said Pichai. “Companies in the US deeply care about being competitive. The reason why they are the best in the world is because they invest in the best resources and they have that mindset. There is nothing I see that indicates that will change,” added Pichai, who took over as CEO in October 2015.Pichai did not appear too sympathetic towards Indian startups who have sought policies that favour domestic companies over foreign rivals. “I am positive that over the next 5-10 years you will have more companies from India which will be competitive on the global stage,” he said. “To do that, you have to be in a global system where you can test yourself in a global marketplace and that’s what will help you scale not just in India, but beyond India,” he said.Last month, India’s preeminent Internet entrepreneurs — Flipkart’s Sachin Bansal and Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola — raised the banner of nationalism in their fight against foreign-origin rivals such as Uber and Amazon, as they urged the government to design policies to favour homegrown companies.Pichai said India would continue to be an important test bed for Google’s products. For instance, offline versions of YouTube and Maps were tested in India before they were launched globally. Google is now working on YouTube Go, which will be launched in India before being rolled out in other markets. The version will enable offline viewing and sharing of videos without using a data connection.“For a place like India, my number one goal is to develop a high quality product, in all local Indian languages, and how we can make that work on more affordable smartphones, and even slower connectivity,” said Pichai, adding that he would love to see more affordable entry-level smartphones, priced around the $30 mark.Pichai, adding that he would love to see more affordable entry-level smartphones, priced around the $30 mark.While Google has bet big on driverless cars in the US, Pichai echoed Uber cofounder Travis Kalanick’s view that India wasn’t ready for autonomous cars. “I don’t think a country like India is going to see, as Travis said, completely automated cars. But just like technology is assisting humans, we can make cars so that they are safer, and the driving experience is comfortable and shared,” added Pichai.Solving connectivity issues is another big focus area for Google in India, be it through providing WiFi at railway stations or turning public spaces into WiFi hotspots. Asked if he is comfortable with the speed at which India is getting connected, Pichai said, “I am never comfortable with the pace of anything that’s happening”.He added that though he wished there was better fibre infrastructure in India, “better connectivity is beginning to happen”, referring to initiatives by existing telcos and the launch of Reliance Jio.