Google To Invest $10 Billion In India Over Next 5 Years, CEO Sundar Pichai Announces India Digitisation Fund

Google CEO Sundar Pichai on Monday (13 July) announced a $10 billion (Rs 75,000 crore) Google for India Digitisation Fund which he says will help accelerate the Indian Digital Economy.

This investment will be made over the period of next five to seven years.

In a company announcement Pichai called this initiative a deeply personal mission and credited the Digital India mission for "making huge progress in getting a billion Indians online".

This $10 billion dollar fund will be invested via a mix of equity investments, partnerships, operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments, and will focus on four key areas.

Pichai writes that these areas include enabling affordable access and information for Indians in regional languages, building new products and services relevant to India’s unique needs, empowering businesses to help them continue their digital transformation and leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture.

This announcement by Pichai followed his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi wherein they discussed ways to attract FDI to India and the role of technology companies in kick-starting the economy.

Prime Minister Modi had taken to twitter earlier today to announce that in his meeting with Pichai they discussed a wide range of subjects with a particular emphasis on leveraging the power of technology to transform the lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs.

Pichai while replying to Prime Minister Modi's tweet said, "...very optimistic about your vision for Digital India and excited to continue our work towards it...".