Google to invest $10 billion in India

Google said on Monday that it plans to invest $10 billion in India in the next five to seven years as the search giant looks to expand its presence in the key overseas market.

Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, today unveiled Google for India Digitization Fund through which it will be making the investments in the country.

"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," he said at the company's annual event focused on India.

Investments will focus on four areas important to India's digitization:

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• First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it's Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other
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• Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India's unique needs
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• Third, empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation
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• Fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture

India is a key overseas market for Google, where a range of its products and services including Search, YouTube, and Android have made inroads with much of the entire online population.

Though Google, like every other American tech giant, makes only a fraction of its revenue from the world's largest internet market.

"There's still more work to do in order to make the internet affordable and useful for a billion Indians...from improving voice input and computing for all of India's languages, to inspiring and supporting a whole new generation of entrepreneurs," said Pichai.