The Hindu : Business : Microsoft to invest $1.7 b

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Thursday, Dec 08, 2005

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Business

Microsoft to invest $1.7 b

Special Correspondent

Bill Gates views India as a potentially huge market

Investment to be deployed across select focus areas Computer services to the rural poor Windows Operating System in nine languages

SOFTWARE GIANTS MEET: Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corp., with N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies, during a chat show in New Delhi on Wednesday. — Photo: Ramesh Sharma

NEW DELHI: Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said on Wednesday that his company planned to invest $1.7 billion (Rs. 7,800 crore) in India in the next four years which included the cost of nearly doubling the company's workforce in the country. "We depend on India for manpower that is why we are scaling up operations here,'' Mr. Gates said at a meeting with industrialists here on his fourth trip to the country.

Microsoft views India as a potentially huge market and the investment would be one among the largest by an IT company. The MS announcements about investments in business and philanthropic activities come at a time when many Indian companies are turning toward open source operating systems on grounds of cost and security.

President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam had also told Mr. Gates during his previous visit that India required low-cost and easily copied alternatives like Linux.

Reacting to the announcement, Union Minister for Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran said the Government regarded it as an indicator of the value that Microsoft attached to its development and R&D activities in the country as well as its recognition of the accelerating pace of growth of the ICT sector. "I am also pleased that Microsoft has offered its full cooperation on various matters relating to security, which is a key area of concern as we move into a digital era,'' he added.

Mr. Gates said the new hiring in India was part of a "conservative estimate'' of $1.7 billion the company would spend in India. "This amount will be deployed across select focus areas over the next four years, in line with Microsoft's strategic vision for India.''

The money would be spent on bringing computer services to the poor rural people in India as well as increasing its marketing and research work in the country.

Underlining the importance of India in Microsoft's future plans, Mr. Gates said his company had opened a research centre in Bangalore this year with the aim of taking computers into rural India. The centre is Microsoft's fourth in the world — the others are located in the U.S., Europe and China. "As we created the fourth here in India, we said the theme of that would be low-cost computing. We said then there will be low-cost computers and this will lead the way to make breakthroughs.''

Part of MS's plans includes releasing an edition of the Windows operating system, designed specifically for India and available in nine Indian languages. "India is a place where breakthroughs like these are necessary and will take place,'' he observed.

Microsoft becomes the fourth information technology giant to announce multi-billion dollar investment plans in India in recent months. SemIndia, a group of non-resident Indians, intends investing $3 billon in a chip manufacturing plant based on technology from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). Earlier this week, AMD's much bigger rival Intel said it would invest over $1 billion in various aspects of its business. Cisco Systems has also announced plans to spend $1.1 billion in India over the next three years.

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