India, Feb. 6 -- Google has become the latest in a growing number of US firms to row back on diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives as it axes hiring targets and reviews programmes. The tech giant has followed firms such as Amazon, Meta and McDonald's as corporate America continues to shift towards more conservative social and political stances in response to the start of Donald Trump's presidency.

In his first weeks as president, Trump has signed a flurry of executive orders relating to DEI, including dialling back transgender protections and ending government programmes.

In its annual report released this week, Google's parent company Alphabet omitted a sentence that had been included in its previous few reports, stating tha...