Google names new India chief

Google has appointed Preeti Lobana to lead its India business, filling a key position that has been vacant since Sanjay Gupta was promoted to Asia-Pacific president in July.

Lobana, formerly vice president of advertising technology at Google, takes over as the company pushes its AI products in India amid intensifying competition in the digital market. He joined Google in 2016.

India is one of Google’s key overseas markets, which has spent billions helping hundreds of millions of Indians come online and digitizing local businesses. By 2020, the company committed to spend another $10 billion in India.

But the search giant faces growing regulatory scrutiny in the world’s second-largest internet and wireless market. India fined Google ₹162 million by 2022 for anti-competitive practices on Android. Days later, it imposed another fine of 113 million dollars after concluding that the Android maker abused the dominant position of the Google Play Store in the country, where more than 95% of smartphones use Android.

In March this year, India’s antitrust regulator opened another investigation into Alphabet’s Google, alleging that the giant used in-app payment policies in an “unfair” and “discriminatory manner.”

Roma Datta Chobey, who was the interim CEO, will return to run the company’s digital business unit.

Prior to joining Google, Lobana spent most of his career in banking, holding positions at NatWest, American Express, and Standard Chartered.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shape the future with AI, opening up unprecedented opportunities for businesses to increase productivity, solve critical challenges, and create new solutions,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.