Sundar Pichai-led Google to invest Rs 75,000 crore in India in next 5-7 years

Google intends to do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments.

New Delhi: Technology giant Google on Monday announced that the company is going to invest Rs 75,000 crore, or approximately $10 billion, into India over the next 5-7 years.

“Today, I’m excited to announce the Google for India Digitization Fund. Through this effort, we will invest Rs 75,000 crore, or approximately $10 billion, into India over the next 5-7 years. We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. This is a reflection of our confidence in the future of India and its digital economy,” Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced at the Google for India virtual event.

The investments will focus on four areas important to India’s digitization that includes enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other.

The second is to build new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs. Empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation and leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture are the other areas.

Pichai lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of Digital India stating that India has made huge progress in the online platform.

“Of course, all this progress was only possible because of a strong foundation of digital connectivity. Thanks to Prime Minister Modi’s vision for Digital India, the country has made huge progress in getting a billion Indians online. Low-cost smartphones combined with affordable data, and a world-class telecom infrastructure, have paved the way for new opportunities,” he said.

“At Google, we’ve been proud to be a partner in India’s digitization journey since 2004, when we opened our first offices in Hyderabad and Bangalore. In those days, our focus was on getting helpful and relevant information to Indian users through Search, whether they were searching for their favorite Bollywood star or cricket scores,” Pichai added.

He also mentioned how the spread of the Internet awareness in rural villages through programs like Internet Saathi has helped more than 30 million women across India gain digital skills to improve their lives and their communities.