By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Alphabet (NASDAQ) Inc has hired Archana Gulati to head its public policy in India. Archana is a former employee of Prime Minister NarendraModi’s federal think tank and India’s antitrust regulator, according to Reuters.

Big Tech firms have hired a number of Indian officials to fight tighter privacy and data regulation as well as scrutiny under the competition laws, which is being enforced by Modi’s federal government.

Gulati, an Indian long-term employee of the government, worked as a joint secretary for digital communications at Modi’s federal think tank Niti Aayog until March 2021. This body is crucial to government’s policies across all sectors.

According to her LinkedIn profile, she was previously a senior officer at India’s antitrust agency, the Competition Commission of India.

Google India spokesperson said that they had confirmed this development, but didn’t elaborate. Gulati didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.

As the hiring decision wasn’t public, it was impossible to name the source.

India’s antitrust regulator is looking at Google’s conduct on the smart TV market, as well as Android’s operating system and in-app payment system.

Meta Platforms Inc., which has spent decades working with Indian state and federal governments, hired Rajiv Adgarwal as the head of policy.

Anand Jha was a former Indian antitrust, federal government official. In 2019, he joined Walmart (NYSE 🙂 India as a public policy officer. He is currently responsible for Indian government relations at Blackstone (NYSE :).