Technology giant Google will invest Rs 75,000 crore, or approximately $10 billion, into India over the next 5-7 years through its just-announced India Digitization Fund, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said.

"We’ll do this through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments," Pichai said.

The investments will focus on four areas important to India’s digitization. First, enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, whether it’s Hindi, Tamil, Punjabi or any other. Second, building new products and services that are deeply relevant to India’s unique needs.

Third, empowering businesses as they continue or embark on their digital transformation and fourth, leveraging technology and AI for social good, in areas like health, education, and agriculture, he said.

Earlier today, Pichai also interacted with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a series of tweets, PM Modi said that he spoke to the Google CEO on a wide range of subjects, particularly leveraging the power of technology to transform the lives of India’s farmers, youngsters and entrepreneurs.

During the interaction, they also spoke about the new work culture that is emerging in the times of COVID-19.

During our interaction, @sundarpichai and I spoke about the new work culture that is emerging in the times of COVID-19. We discussed the challenges the global pandemic has brought to areas such as sports. We also talked about the importance of data security and cyber safety.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 13, 2020

Pichai and Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad are participating in the sixth annual edition of "Google for India".

First Published:Jul 13, 2020 2:31 PM IST