BENGALURU: After testing its start-up mentor programme in Israel, search giant Google is now turning its focus on Indian startups . The company has picked India to kick-start its start-up mentorship programme Launchpad this year, signalling its growing interest in Indian start-ups.On Monday, it launched the first of four such week-long programmes, during which a set of mentors from Google and other companies will coach startups looking to grow. “This is one of our large scale new programme offering,” said Sunil Rao , who heads the start-up initiative for Google India While Google has an interest in growing India’s digital economy , the startup programme could also turn into a pipeline for Google’s investment arm. The company’s venture capital arm had recently picked up a stake in real estate portal Commonfloor and Freshdesk, a Chennai-based customer support tool.In India, Google plans to mentor close to 100 companies through Launchpad, which was started on a small scale nearly three years ago in Israel. Last year, it was conducted in 20 different cities.Google benefits from the growing digital economy, as companies spend on Google to acquire customers. In the year ended March 2014, Google’s revenue crossed Rs 3,000 crore, up 47 per cent year-on-year, helped by increasing online advertising spend by e-commerce companies.All the “bits and pieces” of Google's startup programmes will be consolidated under the Launchpad. “It will be like one offering to the developer from a startup perspective,” said Rao, country head, start-up ecosystem India, at Google India. The company plans to take Launchpad to over 50 cities this year but in India, most of its activities will be focused in Bengaluru.Rao, who also heads the developer relations team for Google in India, has grown the Google developer community to one of the biggest with 45 chapters across the country. Google Developer Relations was set up in India about five years ago in Hyderabad.