Google to build biggest campus outside US in Hyderabad

Google will set up its first own campus in Asia in Hyderabad - its biggest outside the US - at an investment of  Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion).

This will double its headcount in India to 13,000 employees over the next four years.

Google would be allocated 7.2 acres in Gachibowli, the main IT corridor of Hyderabad, and it will build its own facility, Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao said.

An MoU in this regard was signed between the Telangana government and the internet giant during Rao's visit to the US.

"This facility for Google in Hyderabad, the capital city of the state of Telangana, when fully built, will be one of the largest facilities globally with a built-up space of about two million sqft and one of the largest campus for Google globally outside of the United States.

"The facility will be Google's first-ever own campus in India," Rama Rao said in a statement.

He had earlier tweeted that it would be Google's largest campus outside the US. "First campus in Asia. 2 million sq ft space would be built. Investment of Rs 1,000 crore and in four years, employee size to double from 6,500 to 13,000," added the minister, who had a meeting at the Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, with the company global head for Google facilities and workplaces, David Radcliffe.

Google expects the facility to be completed and fully operational in about four years and it is planned to start in 2019, the statement said.

Rama Rao, along with Telangana IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan, also met Bram Bout, Director of Google Education, and Rajen Sheth, Senior Director of Product Management for Android and Chrome for Work and Education. 

The minister wanted Google to associate with the state government to support the ambitious digital Telangana programme, particularly the component that intends to promote digital literacy amongst school children.

The delegation led by the minister also met the Google Street View team of Manik Gupta, Director of Product Management and Narayana Tummala, Ground Truth Engineering Lead for Google.

While Street View has been extensively used in the US, Canada and many European countries, its applications in India have been limited so far, the statement said, adding, Google has launched street View in some of the tourist sites like Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar in partnership with the Archaeological Society of India.

"Google is in talks with the Minister of Home Affairs to get permissions for conducting the Street View exercise at a city-wide level. This permission is expected to be given shortly.

"Upon the request made by the Minister, Google has agreed to make Telangana the first state which will get Street View for one complete city, Hyderabad to begin with, with subsequent extension to other major cities and towns," the statement said.

Google has also agreed to support specific requests made by the minister to utilise Street View for monitoring of deviations from approved building plans, property tax collection, mapping of industrial land bank located in different parts of the state, among others, the statement added.