Mohandas Pai Criticized by Zoho CEO and Google Exec Over 'Bengaluru Ignored' Remarks

Mohandas Pai’s remarks about Bengaluru being ignored for AI Centres of Excellence were met with rebuttals from Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu and Google DeepMind Director Manish Gupta. Both executives, part of the selection committee, clarified that the decision was made without regional bias and urged against politicizing the issue.

Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu and Google DeepMind Director Manish Gupta responded to former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai’s complaint about Bengaluru being excluded from the government’s newly announced AI Centres of Excellence (CoE) plan. Pai had taken to social media to question why India’s technology capital, Bengaluru, was overlooked for the AI hubs, which are being set up at AIIMS and IIT Delhi, IIT Ropar, and IIT Kanpur. He accused the government of showing "step-motherly treatment" to the South, tagging ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and even Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Vembu, who co-chaired the committee responsible for selecting the AI hub locations, refuted Pai’s claims, clarifying that the decision was made through a thorough evaluation process, without any government interference. He urged people not to inject North-South politics into the matter, adding that the committee itself had a majority of members from southern India.

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Google executive Manish Gupta also defended the decision, stating that he fully stood by the committee’s choices, which were made in India’s best interest.