Microsoft chief Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, center, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the third partners meeting of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), a major public health initiative, in New Delhi on Dec. 7. Gates and his wife were on a four-day India visit on Dec. 6-9. (Photo: AFP)

New Delhi : Information Technology major Microsoft is to invest $1.7 billion in India and also partner the government in pushing e-governance and help add value to the manufacturing sector.

"The investment will be made over a four-year period. It is meant to create a digitally inclusive society, strengthen the local knowledge economy and make India a major hub for our research," Microsoft chief Bill Gates - who was on a four-day India visit on Dec. 6-9 - announced at a press conference here on Dec. 7 that was attended by IT and Communications Minister Dayanidhi Maran. Microsoft has also signed agreements with the government's Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and e-governance agreement with the National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG), Gates said. The software giant will collaborate with the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) to launch a competitiveness enhancement program for India's manufacturing, he added

Earlier, while delivering a lecture on 'Realizing India's Potential,' Gates held that "a lot of amazing and fantastic things" had happened in India since his visit three years ago. On Dec. 7, Gates met Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and called on Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises chief Anil Ambani to discuss his company's broadband expansion plans. He also met Maran, Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss and Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi on Dec. 6. He visited Chennai and Bangalore on Dec. 9.

"We are extremely bullish on India," Gates said. "Over the next three years, we will see our employees rising from 4,000 to 7,000. This is on a fairly conservative basis and is evidence of the role we see for India in our overall plans," he added.