Japanese telecom and Internet giant SoftBank on Monday said it will invest around ₹60,000 crore ($10 billion) in India in the communications and information technology space over the next few years.

Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of the company, met the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Minister for Communications and IT and Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad here, and said India is the top most priority for SoftBank.

Son, who is Japan’s richest businessman, had met Modi during his visit to Japan and had assured him of big investments in India.

SoftBank already has made investments in many Indian companies such as InMobi and Bharti Group-promoted instant messaging platform Hike. With a market cap of $92 billion, SoftBank is one of the biggest telecom and Internet corporations of Japan with operations in broadband, fixed line telecom, e-Commerce, finance, media and marketing.

Son further expressed faith in the e-commerce potential of India. He estimated it to become a $50-billion business in the next 10 years. Son said the growth of e-commerce would lead to employment generation in India by opening up new avenues.

According to market sources, SoftBank is in talks with Snapdeal for a stake. Nikesh Arora, who recently moved from Google to SoftBank, is scheduled to meet start-up and potential investment targets over the next few days. The meeting is scheduled to take place at Bharti Airtel office. Arora was also on Bharti Airtel Board earlier.

During the meeting with Prasad, Son urged developing a robust mobile phone infrastructure and sort out the issue relating to spectrum.

Prasad welcomed the optimism shown by Son in India and said that it would go a long way in enhancing cooperation between India and Japan.

He also highlighted the efforts that are being made by this Government for developing a world-class communication network in India. Prasad assured Son that the Government is working hard on sorting out all issues relating to spectrum in India.

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