US-based information storage and management major EMC Corp Tuesday said it will double its investment in India to $500 million by 2010 in research and development, marketing infrastructure and sales operations.

"We see a great future for EMC in India," Joe Tucci, chairman, president and chief executive of the Massachusetts-based EMC Corp, told a press conference to unveil the company's plans for India.

"We look forward to providing the technology and solutions that can help India progress toward its goal of becoming one of the world's leading information technology-based societies," he said.

With revenues of $9.66 billion and a target of achieving $11.1 billion for 2006, the global company wants to expand its market coverage to more than 60 Indian cities by 2008, Tucci said.

"Our new plan to double investments in India is the direct result of the great success we've had in helping hundreds of organisations with their information management needs and the tremendous opportunity we see in front of us."

The company has also announced a Centre of Excellence for e-Governance in India that would focus on implementing e-governance initiatives to provide effective and better governance by the centre and state governments.

"The focus of the centre will be to make the government understand how to create an intelligent information system," said Manoj Chugh, India country manager for EMC Corp.

"Bangalore is home to EMC's largest software development effort outside North America. Today's announcement will further boost our commitment and help us better meet the information infrastructure needs of India," Chugh added.

Welcoming the group's plans, Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran said his United Progressive Alliance government looks forward to working with leading technology companies from the world over.

"Our government will continue to partner with leading organisations like EMC to build an intelligent information infrastructure for all our citizens to transform India into a knowledge economy," Maran added.

EMC began its India operations in 2000 and has a wholly-owned arm with business offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Chennai, and a channel partner network with presence in more than 30 cities across India.

Its customers include the Tata Group, Bharti, Hutchinson, Mahindra and Mahindra, the Aditya Birla group, Asian Paints, Madura Garments, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Dell, General Electric, Citibank, Wipro and KPMG.