Sundar Pichai-led Google is seriously evaluating getting into e-commerce and India could be the first stop, it is learnt. The launch could coincide with Diwali later this year, a source said.

The search giant, which was in talks to invest in Flipkart after Walmart’s $16-billion deal to buy 77 per cent in the Bengaluru firm, is now trying to enter the Indian e-commerce space on its own. With such a move, Google could take on both Amazon and Flipkart in a sector pegged at around $38.5 billion and projected to grow to as much as $100 billion by 2020 in the country. While the American ...