Now Microsoft Wagers on India

Business Week ^ | 12/8 | Jay greene

[voletti]

Following the lead of Cisco and Intel, Redmond will be making a $1.7 billion investment in the Subcontinent

In case there was any doubt, the titans of technology believe in India. Microsoft (MSFT) offered the latest proof, saying on Dec. 7 that it would invest $1.7 billion in the country over the next four years.

Microsoft's plan follows news on Dec. 5 that Intel (INTC) would pump $1 billion into its India R&D and venture-capital funding over the next five years, and an October announcement that Cisco (CSCO) would plow $1.1 billion into India over the next three years.

Though hardly startling, the amounts each company plans to invest are eye-popping. But the market for low-cost Indian job talent is rich, and getting increasingly competitive.

"KEEN TO GROW." "With more engineers graduating out of universities and colleges than anywhere else in the world, we can learn from the growing developer and engineering base," says Microsoft spokesman Matt Pilla. "India is emerging as a world-class IT leader, and is supported by an increasingly healthy market and economic outlook that offers tremendous growth opportunities for the company."

It's not like Microsoft hasn't invested in India already. The company first opened shop in the country in 1990. Eight years later, it opened a product-development center in Hyderabad, where most of its 3,000 India employees work. That's about 5% of Microsoft's 63,000 employees worldwide. And earlier this year, Microsoft opened a new research lab in Bangalore.

With the new round of investment, Microsoft plans to add 3,000 more employees, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told journalists in New Delhi. "We are keen to grow Microsoft activities in India," Gates said, according to press reports. "The growth in employment for Microsoft will be more in India than the United States."

[CarrotAndStick]

http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2005/dec/08india.htm

India booms: $10 billion in 11 weeks!

Business Standard Economy Bureau in New Delhi | December 08, 2005 10:30 IST


In the last 11 weeks, international information technology majors and non-resident Indians have announced investment plans of around $10 billion in the country.

In the last seven weeks, global players including Cisco, Intel, AMD and Microsoft have committed to investing $6.85 billion in India over the next three to five years. These investments span the entire gamut of IT services -- software, microprocessors and networking equipment.

Microsoft Corporation today announced its decision to invest $1.7 billion in India over the next four years. Earlier this week, Intel Corporation, the world's largest chip-maker, announced an investment package of $1.05 billion over the next five years.

To complete the loop, a consortium of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and SemIndia (a group of NRIs) and Indian Equipment Manufacturing company (another NRI consortium) announced plans to set up separate fabrication units.

Cisco Systems, the world's largest provider of networking equipment including routers and switches, had also recently announced an investment plan of $1.1 billion, the company's largest investment outside the United States.

The bulk of the investments made by the IT majors have been to strengthen their research and development activities in the country.

While half of Microsoft's investments will be used for the company's R&D centres, Cisco Systems will invest $750 million of its total $1.1-billion commitment on research centre.

Intel will also invest a significant part of its $1.05-billion investment on research centre.

[austinite]

Bill, move the whole works there. See ya.

[zeugma]

Bill, move the whole works there. See ya.

Well, it certainly couldn't result in an even more insecure OS.

Another thread, different title/source:
Gates: Microsoft to invest $1.7B in India

[uscit]

After many years of vigorously advocating unlimited immigration of foreign IT workers, many from India, and outsourcing as much work as possible, Bill and his one-world, screw-the-U.S. cohorts in the elite upper managements of corporate America have succeeded in getting many Indians to learn IT skills. The thousands of IT jobs that used to offer a comfortable middle-class wage here are mostly gone now. No young American wants to get into the field, and understandably so. This does not bode well for our standard of living and our national security.