Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad cheers Google's Rs 75k Cr investment plan in India

Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad welcomed Google CEO Sundar Pichai's announcement of an investment of Rs 75,000 crore into India through the 'Google for India Digistation Fund' saying that the company is acknowledging India's digital empowerment.

Speaking at the sixth edition of 'Google for India' Monday afternoon, Prasad said, "I am very happy to learn that Google is making a huge investment in the Google for India Digitisation Fund. Google today is a global brand and a platform of change, empowerment, innovation information, and digital awakening... It is rising to the occasion by investing a fairly substantial amount in Indian Digital transformative fund. Sundar Pichai who is heading Google is a powerful symbol of the creative potential of India's human resource."

Immense scope for Google

Prasad went on to say that India is important in the present world because it has a "stable democracy, an open society and seeking to transform the lives of ordinary Indians with the power of technology". He expressed confidence that Google's fund is going to be used from creating digital infrastructure to promoting start-ups.

"I am very happy that Google is acknowledging India's digital empowerment, digital innovation, and the need to create further opportunities. I am quite clear that there is immense scope for Google to undertake new initiatives in the field of agriculture, weather prediction, healthcare, and digital education. These are great opportunities for 1.3 billion people which is full of innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship," he added.

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Google’s confidence in India's future

Sundar Pichai said that the company will invest Rs 75,000 crore into India over the next 5-7 years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure, and ecosystem investments. He added that the huge investment reflects Google’s confidence in the future of India and its digital economy.

Announcing the decision, Pichai wrote in a blog that the mission of Google is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. He added that the mission is "deeply personal" to him since, as a kid, he always had to wait for every new piece of technology to arrive from someplace else.

“Today, people in India no longer have to wait for technology to come to you. A whole new generation of technologies are happening in India first,” he wrote.

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