Google had earlier tied up with the ICC to use Gemini to analyze cricket videos. Now it’s looking at another big Indian use-case to drum up usage—the IIT-JEE exam.
Building on last week’s launch of practice SAT exams, Google has announced that students can now take full-length mock JEE Main tests directly within Gemini at no cost. The feature, developed in partnership with Physics Wallah and Careers360—two of India’s most prominent education platforms—represents Google’s latest effort to drive adoption in its largest market. Interestingly, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had himself cleared the IIT-JEE to gain admission into IIT Kharagpur in 1989.
Strategic Push for Indian Users
The JEE initiative is part of a coordinated campaign to grow Gemini’s user base in India. Google has been aggressively promoting its AI platform through multiple channels: free plans specifically for students, prominent advertising during cricket broadcasts, cinema campaigns, and now the ICC partnership that demonstrated Gemini’s ability to analyze cricket match footage. The JEE Main practice tests add an educational dimension to this strategy, targeting India’s most academically ambitious demographic.
Each year, over 1.2 million students take the Joint Entrance Examination to compete for roughly 16,000 seats at prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology and other top engineering colleges. The exam has spawned a multi-billion dollar test preparation industry, making it an ideal market for Google to demonstrate Gemini’s practical value.
Vetted Content and Immediate Feedback
By partnering with Physics Wallah—a popular ed-tech platform known for affordable JEE coaching—and Careers360, Google addresses concerns about content accuracy. Practice tests are “grounded in rigorously vetted content,” and Gemini provides immediate feedback after each test, highlighting strengths and identifying areas requiring additional study.
Students can access the feature simply by telling Gemini to generate a practice JEE Main test. The conversational interface aligns with Google’s broader AI strategy of making powerful tools accessible through natural language interaction. Gemini creates an interactive test that allows students to select multiple-choice answers. Gemini also tells students if their answers were correct or not, and gives advice.
The India Play
India represents a crucial growth opportunity for Google’s AI ambitions. The country has a young, digitally connected population with high respect for education and willingness to experiment with new technology. By offering free access to tools that typically cost thousands of rupees through coaching institutes, Google can rapidly scale adoption while gathering data on how students learn.
The strategy is multifaceted: cricket partnerships tap into cultural passion points, free student plans remove price barriers, and JEE practice tests provide tangible utility. Together, these initiatives position Gemini not as a foreign AI tool but as a platform designed for Indian contexts and challenges.
India’s IIT JEE has spawned a multi-million-dollar test preparation industry. By staking a claim in JEE preparation—a market where millions of families invest enormous resources and hope—Google has ensured Gemini will be part of the conversation in coaching centers and study groups across India. Whether it becomes as essential as traditional test prep remains to be seen, but Google has made its intentions clear: India isn’t just another market, it’s central to Gemini’s global growth strategy.