Vodafone has pledged to invest a further £1.3 billion in its operations in India, it emerged last week.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi toured the U.K. last week, and the commitment by Vodafone was one of several commercial agreements announced during his visit.
"We are enthused with the PM’s vision for ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’," said Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone, in a statement on Friday.
"As the co-creator of the telecom ecosystem, a catalyst of the telecom revolution in India and being committed for the long term, we are ideally poised to partner the government of India in fulfilling these important initiatives," he said.
Vodafone is India’s second-biggest mobile operator, and has spent £11.1 billion in the market since its entry via the 2007 acquisition of Hutchison Essar.
Of the £1.3 billion of new investment, £800 million will go towards network coverage and capacity upgrades.
£300 million will be used to expand its customer service centres in Pune and Ahmedabad, creating 6,000 new jobs.
Vodafone will also establish a new tier 4 data centre at an estimated cost of £100 million.
In addition, another £100 million will be used to expand the operator’s M-Pesa mobile payment service to include banking services. To that end, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has agreed in principle to grant M-Pesa a banking licence.
"We are pleased to announce our enhanced commitment to India through this series of significant further investments," said Colao.
