British telecom giant Vodafone on Thursday on Thursday committed investments worth Rs 13,000 crore in India towards capacity expansion and new business initiatives. Vittorio Colao, CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, made the commitments during his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in London. The company said in a statement, "Since starting operations in India in 2007, Vodafone has already invested over Rs 111,000 crore and is today the largest FDI investor in the country."

The investment includes Rs 8,000 crore to upgrade and expand network coverage, Rs 3,000 crore to further increase capacity and upgrade its high-end technology centre, and IT and customer experience centres in Pune and Ahmedabad, Rs 1,000 crore for setting up a state-of- the-art data centre, the first of its kind in the Indian telecom sector, and Rs 1,000 crore towards the payment bank for which Vodafone M-Pesa has received an in-principle license from the Reserve Bank of India.

Vodafone said the planned capacity expansions and investments in the technology centre and customer service centres will create opportunities for employment. "Vodafone will accordingly increase its staffing levels to 15,000 employees over the next two years," the statement said.