IBM is set to increase investments in India as said by the Chief Executive of IBM, Arvind Krishna to Narendra Modi in a video conference call on Monday.

These words came after a week when Modi held a similar video call with Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Google declared of investing $10 billion in India in the next 5-7 years, which includes a $4.5 billion infusion into Jio Platforms in return for a 7.73 percent stake.

India-born Krishna, who took over as CEO of IBM in April, said that he is confident in the PM’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) and briefed him about investment plans IBM has for India. The details of the investment plan though are not immediately available.

Modi said that this is a great time to invest in India and the country is “welcoming and supporting” investments that are taking place in the technology sector.

As the world is under lockdown and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow is increasing, Modi said,

“We are moving forward with the vision of a self-sufficient India to become competent globally and develop disruption resilient local supply chain.

IBM has more than 100,000 employees in India who are working for the global operations and the local market. IBM India reported to have revenues of $3.8 billion in FY19.

Both Modi and Krishna explored the possibility of creating India-specific AI-based tools in the healthcare sector which could led to the development of better models for disease prediction and analysis.

Modi also said, “India is marching towards the development of an integrated tech and data driven healthcare system, which is affordable and hassle-free.” Krishna also appreciated the government’s Ayushman Bharat initiative and talked about the usage of technology in early identification of diseases.

Issues related to data security, cyberattacks, concerns of privacy and other areas were also parts of the discussion.

For supporting government agencies, healthcare organizations and academic institutions globally that are fighting to overcome the COVID-19 crisis, IBM has lent its Artificial Intelligence tool IBM Watson, alongside to the expertise in Natural Language Processing from IBM Research and AI search capabilities with Watson Discovery.

Two weeks ago, Krishna had a discussion with the Union Minister for Electronics and IT – Ravi Shankar Prasad. Relating to that, a top government official said, “They all are bullish about India and same is the case with Krishna. IBM is exploring ways to enhance investment in India at present.”

Modi also expressed to Krishna about the government’s commitment to ensure that the technological shift towards ‘work from home’ is smooth by facilitating a conducive infrastructure, connectivity and regulatory environment.