Murdoch proposes big investment in India

Murdoch proposes big investment in India

Bangalore, Mar 11: Media moghul Rupert Murdoch today said he planned investment of "several hundreds of millions of dollars" in India in the next couple of years and hinted at launching TV channels in six main languages.

He, however, ruled out any "large" investments in the print medium in India, saying "I have absolutely no plans at all." Noting that Star TV had made a great deal of investments in Hindi and English, he said "we would expect similar services in six main languages."

Indicating his future plans, he said the TV channels would be "beefed up" to make them "a great deal more aggressive." Murdoch said ``we have lot of (investment) plans. We will disclose it in April.''

On his trip to Bangalore, he said he was excited by the developments in the city and ``I have come to see them for myself.'' Murdoch, who arrived here around noon, held ``internal meetings'' today, a spokesman for him said.

The media magnate is slated to meet key IT players including N R Narayana Murthy (Infosys) and Azim Premji of Wipro tomorrow in what was described as his ``IT focussed trip''.

Murdoch is also likely to meet Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna on Monday but confirmation of appointment was awaited, the spokesman said. From here, Murdoch will proceed to Mumbai on Monday and to Delhi on Wednesday. Efforts were being made for a meeting of Murdoch with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the spokesman added.