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LOST MY JOB OUTSOURCED TO INDIA! :(
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Date Posted: 12:57:33 11/15/04 Mon
Microsoft Opens Software Development Center in India (Update3)
Nov. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, will hire ``several hundred'' people in the next year at its development center in India, expanding its workforce of 800, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said.
``In India we see a country of incredible talent,'' Ballmer, 48, said after opening a new building at the 28-acre complex in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad. ``We're committed to access many of the brilliant engineers graduating in the country. We're trying to hire the most capable people as fast as we can.''
Ballmer and Intel Corp.'s Craig Barrett are both visiting India this week to oversee investments in the world's second-most populous nation. Moving work to low-cost regions like India was an issue in this year's U.S. presidential election, with Democratic nominee Senator John Kerry saying the trend is leading to the loss of jobs in the U.S.
``Given the nature of the workforce and the educational levels, particular in the technology area, there's no question that India is one of the most attractive for high-tech companies like Intel and Microsoft,'' said Michael Holland, chairman of Holland & Co., which manages $500 million, including shares of Microsoft, in New York.
Hiring
Ballmer said the hiring in India won't lead to loss of jobs at the company's Redmond, Washington, headquarters. Microsoft has said it expects to add 3,000 people in the U.S. software development center in the 12 months, he said. Ballmer didn't provide any details of how many people the company intends to employ at the Hyderabad center in the next year.
Microsoft established its software development center in Hyderabad in 1998, its second such center outside the U.S., with 12 people. Its workforce now includes a team of 250 engineers that develop software systems for Microsoft's own needs. The employee additions exceeded the 500 people target by 2005 set by Chairman Bill Gates in November 12, 2002.
The campus is part of $400 million in investments announced by Gates in November, 2002.
Intel's Barrett is scheduled to visit India later in the week. Barrett, making his sixth visit to the South Asian nation, said in 2002 that Intel would spend as much as $130 million to raise the number of engineers at its Bangalore chip-design unit to 3,000 by 2007. Santa Clara, California-based Intel started the unit in 1999 with 9 people.
Travel
Ballmer later traveled to Bangalore to meet executives of companies such as Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd., India's second- and third-largest software exporters.
Bangalore, India-based Infosys and Microsoft today announced they will invest $8 million to develop software systems designed to help customers cut costs. Wipro, based in the same city, said it has completed five years of partnership with Microsoft.
The visits ``indicate the growing importance of India in the technology world,'' said Rajeev Malik, a senior economist at JPMorgan Chase bank in Singapore. The companies are attracted to India by ``a fairly large supply of human capital skills at a pretty competitive price. It's also a large domestic market.''
India's software writers, who are paid a sixth of what their U.S. counterparts earn, were awarded the highest average increase in salary in the Asia-Pacific region in 2003, according to a report published by Hewitt Associates Inc. in February.
Microsoft's Windows software accounts for about 96 percent of total desktop operating systems sold in India in the year ended March 31, according to a survey by Indian Market Research Bureau, a local researcher. Intel's Pentium microprocessors had 86 percent of the Indian market, the study said.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Saikat Chatterjee in New Delhi at schatterjee4@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Iain Wilson at iwilson2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: November 15, 2004 06:48 EST
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=a2wLjARGWIe0&refer=asia
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Microsoft Opens Software Development Center in India (Update3)