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Rise of IT MNCs in India

Started by dwarakesh, Jul 11, 2009, 09:19 AM

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dwarakesh

Over the years, India has emerged as the R&D hub of IT companies globally. There is no technology giant that does not have a R&D centre in the country. These R&D centres tap into the country's vast pool of skilled manpower and help their parent companies to churn out world class products and technologies.

Over the years, India has taken several giant steps in becoming the hub for innovation. IT MNCs are increasingly delegating projects of strategic importance to their development centres in India. India's stature as R&D hub is further established by the fact that many of these global leaders have set up their largest R&D centres outside their country of origin in India.

However, India's R&D success story is not a recent phenomena. The success trail goes more than 20 years back to early eighties. Here's looking into India's evolution as a sought-after R&D destination for global IT giants.

dwarakesh

1988

The chip numero uno, Intel, started its India operations in 1988 by setting up a sales office in Bangalore.

Since then Intel India has played a key part in most of the company's product roll outings. The team designed Intel's first six-core CPU with 16 MB of L3 cache memory and 1.9 billion transistors.

Over the years, Intel India has grown to include the most Intel divisions of any country outside the United States. As Intel's largest non-manufacturing site outside of the United States, the Intel India Development Center (IIDC) focuses on creating innovative products that advance the next generation of technology

dwarakesh

1989

In the year 1989, when only a few multinational companies had operations in India, global PC giant Hewlett-Packard began R&D work in the country.

Rick Steffens, who heads HP's systems technology and software division said, "Hewlett-Packard, which set up its India R&D center in 1989, started out with cost efficiencies in mind. "As those teams started to get some experience and do more development, what we started noticing was that they were also capable of making changes to and enhancing the product

dwarakesh

1993

Beginning with a distributorship through Tata Consultancy Services in 1987, the company established direct operations with a liaison office in 1991, and in 1993 formed Oracle India Private Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oracle Corp., focused on the sales and marketing of Oracle software in India.

A year later, in 1994, Oracle opened its India Development Center at Bangalore, becoming the first multinational company to establish core software development operations in India to support its global product development strategy and to address the needs of the local market.

The R&D center in Bangalore was Oracle's fifth, and the first outside the US and Europe.

dwarakesh

1997

In the year 1997, Genpact (GE) established GECIS (GE Capital International Services) as an outsourcing unit to provide services from India.

During the following eight years, GECIS offered a range of business process services becoming a provider to many of GE's financial services and manufacturing businesses.

In December 2004, GE sold off its 60 per cent stake in GECIS for $480 million to two equity companies, Oak Hill Capital Partners and General Atlantic Partners. Both equity companies bought a 30 per cent stake each and GE still remained the largest shareholder with 40 per cent stake in the company. In 2005, it became an independent company with the name Genpact.

dwarakesh

1998

The year 1998 was one of the most momentous years for Indian IT. The year saw India take the very first steps towards becoming R&D hub for IT giants globally.

Microsoft entered India in 1990. In 1998, the company launched its India Development Center at Hyderabad, the second largest development center outside the US facility in Redmond.

In the same year, Motorola Inc invested $3.5 million to set up a design centre in Gurgaon. Four years later it announced the establishment of a software development center in Bangalore at a cost of $13 million.

In the same year, Intel too commenced its India Development Centre, the company's largest non-manufacturing site outside US. The year also saw IBM expanding its presence in the country with a new research lab in Delhi. In the same year, German-based SAP Labs started its operations in India. Oracle opened its second development center in Hyderabad.

dwarakesh

2000

The year 2000 (or Y2K) was the year of dotcoms. The year which saw a flurry of Internet startups globally also marked the birth of Indian BPO industry. The year saw emergence of BPO startup Spectramind Ltd. Backed by VC firm Chrysalis Capital, Spectramind processed transactions for Internet portals worldwide. In 2003, Spectramind was bought by Wipro.

In the same year, GECIS became the largest IT-enabled services provider in India. It hired 6,000 employees, prompting the company to post signs around its premises warning "Trespassers Will Be Recruited".

dwarakesh

2001

In 2001, consulting firm Accenture opened its technology development center in Mumbai. Accenture had then planned to service about 35 clients from the Mumbai facility, with almost 98 per cent of the work done for non-Indian clients.

In 2001, Dell too started its R&D center in India.

dwarakesh

2003

The year 2003 saw Internet giant Yahoo open its software development center in India. The Yahoo development center in Bangalore was the company's first centre outside the US.

The company's R&D unit in Bangalore aimed to help the company create new ideas and products for e-commerce, web content and search.

2004

In 2004 India became an R&D hub for internet search leader Google. Like Yahoo, this was also Google's first R&D center outside the United States. The company's R&D centre focussed on areas like datamining, datawarehousing, business intelligence and knowledge management.

In the same year, IBM Corp acquired Daksh, India's third-largest back-office services firm. Daksh's acquisition by IBM was the country's largest BPO acquisition ever.

dwarakesh

2005

The year 2005 saw IBM expanding its India presence with the opening of another research lab in Bangalore. The centre focuses on enhancing IBM's "On Demand" offerings in the services business by developing tailor-made solutions for its delivery groups.

2006

In 2006, networking giant Cisco established its Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore. According to Chief Globalization Officer Wim Elfrink, the focus was to tap intellectual talent, growth opportunities and innovation. So far, the company has filed more than 600 patents from India.

In the same year IBM announced its plans to invest nearly $6 billion in India over the next three years. The announcement further underlined the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology expertise.

German software maker SAP also said that it will invest $1 billion over the next five years in India to expand operations and double its headcount.

dwarakesh

2008

In the year 2008, Accenture formally opened its Technology Lab in Bangalore, its fourth such facility following sites in the United States and France.

The India labs focuses on research and development in systems integration and software engineering that includes service-oriented and distributed software architectures, collaborative technologies and processes, automated quality management for software development, data quality management and data services, testing theory and practice for software and systems and large-scale distributed workforce management techniques.

The India success story in R&D continues, reflecting the country's IT prowess. Recently, IBM announced that it will invest $100 million in global mobile services research over the next five years. The majority of the research for this project will be directed from India. In fact, IBM India has the second largest workforce in the company, after the US

SAP recently inaugurated its third Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore. The company's other such labs are located in Palo Alto, California, and Tokyo. 

Source: Indiatimes