Google, Amazon announce major investments in India

BLUE chip companies Google and Amazon have announced major investments in India during prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States.

Amazon.com Inc will invest an additional $15 billion in the south Asian country, the company's chief executive Andy Jassy told Modi in his meeting on Friday (23).

The investment will take the e-commerce giant's total India investment across all businesses to $26 billion by 2030, he said.

Modi and Jassy spoke about supporting Indian startups, creating jobs, enabling exports, digitization, and empowering individuals and small businesses to compete globally, an Amazon blog post said.

This announcement follows Amazon's cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) saying last month it will invest $12.9 bn in the country by the end of 2030.

Google is investing $10 bn in India's digitisation fund, its CEO Sundar Pichai told Modi, a step that will recognise India's leadership on fintech and will support small and large businesses in India, the US and around the world.

Pichai met Modi in Washington on Friday and announced the opening of Google's global fintech operation centre in Gujarat’s GIFT City.

“It was an honour to meet Prime Minister Modi during the historic visit to the US. We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India's digitisation fund,” Pichai said.

“We are announcing the opening of our global fintech operation centre in GIFT City, Gujarat. PM's vision for Digital India was way ahead of his time I now see it as a blueprint that other countries are looking to do," he added.

On the final day of his Washington trip, Modi met US and Indian technology executives, including Apple's Tim Cook and Microsoft's Satya Nadella and appealed to global companies to "Make in India".

(Agencies)