Why Google Picked 4 Indian Startups For Climate AI Programme

Google has selected four Indian climate-tech startups for its first Google DeepMind Accelerator: AI for the Planet programme, backing AI- and satellite-driven solutions for agriculture, carbon removal and biodiversity.

Tech giant Google announced on Monday that it has selected four Indian startups for its inaugural Google DeepMind Accelerator: AI for the Planet programme.

The four startups -- Terrastack, Varaha Climate, Farmers for Forests and Climitra Carbon -- are joining the cohort of 16 organisations across the Asia Pacific.

These homegrown startups are applying artificial intelligence, satellite intelligence, remote sensing and drones to face challenges ranging from sustainable agriculture and agroforestry to carbon removal and biodiversity.

Over the next three months, they will receive access to the latest Google AI stack, technical support, and expert mentorship to scale up their critical solutions for a sustainable future.

Innovations in Sustainable Agriculture and Carbon Solutions

Among the selected startups, Terrastack combines satellite and agronomic data to provide plot-level land intelligence for smallholder farmers.

The company is part of the programme's sustainable agriculture track, using data and AI to make agricultural decision-making more precise and accessible.

Varaha Climate empowers small farmers to earn carbon credits by verifying regenerative agriculture and carbon removal using remote sensing and AI.

Its work is part of the programme's focus on scaling up climate and carbon solutions.

Alongside, Farmers for Forests is using AI-powered drones to turn smallholder agroforestry into measurable carbon and biodiversity action at scale, and Climitra Carbon is deploying Geo-AI to verify the removal of invasive species and their conversion into biochar, linking land restoration with scalable carbon solutions.

Google's Broader Clean Energy Initiatives in India

In addition to backing the local climate tech startup ecosystem, Google announced four other initiatives to accelerate the country's clean energy transition.

These include expanding AI-powered solar application programming interface (API) across 300 million Indian rooftops to automate roof surveys and layouts, and long-term agreement with ReNew Power for a 150 megawatt utility solar generation project in Rajasthan.

The remaining initiatives involve launching an initiative with Mitti Labs to assist smallholder rice farmers in Telangana adopt alternate wetting and drying to disrupt methane-producing microbes, and opening fresh opportunities for research and innovation proposals on the Centre's Manthan platform.

Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff