Microsoft Plans $1.7B Investment In India

Speaking in New Delhi on Wednesday (Dec. 7), Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said the company&'s expansion in India would be limited only by the ability to hire engineering talent and put management structures in place.

The software giant, which already has about 4,000 engineers at its centers in Hyderabad and Bangalore intends hiring 3,000 more in the next three to four years. “The progress we have made in India in the last few years has been fantastic,” Gates said.

The research and development center in Bangalore will focus on low-cost computing. Many Microsoft products are being built in India, at its center in Hyderabad where the storage server was developed, Gates said.

Recent big-ticket investments into India that were recently announced include Cisco&'s plans to invest $1.10 billion. A consortium of expatriate Indian engineers has announced plans to build a $3 billion wafer fab in India while Intel Corp. had earlier this week said it planned to invest more than a billion dollars into expanding its operations here.