IBM to triple investment in India to $6 B
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Tuesday, 06 June 2006, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: The world’s largest software services company, IBM today announced plans to invest $6 billion in India over three years, underscoring the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology outsourcing and expertise. Speaking at a meeting attended by more than 10,000 IBM employees, investment analysts and several top executives, IBM Chairman and Chief Executive, Samuel Palmisano said the investments would go into expansion of its services, software, hardware and research businesses in India. In the past three years, the company has invested more than $2 billion, and hired more than 32,000 people in India, taking its staff in the country from 9,000 to 42,000 today. "India and other emerging economies are increasingly becoming an important part of IBM's global success," Palmisano said. Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was also present. Palmisano later met with the analysts to brief them on IBM's work in India and its global plans for next year, an annual talk ordinarily held in New York. The two-day meeting in Bangalore includes the company's first investor conference outside the U.S. Palmisano said, “The new investment "will ensure we make the most of the opportunities to grow this marketplace while it enables IBM to fulfill its vision to become a globally integrated company." "If you are not here in India making the right investment then you won't be able to combine the skills and the expertise here with skills and expertise around the world in ways that can help our clients be successful," he said. "I am here today to say that IBM is not going to miss this opportunity." The new investment announcement dwarfs the $3.9 billion combined investment announced last year for India by three U.S.-based companies - Microsoft Corp., Intel Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. International Business Machines Corp. of Armonk, New York, is among a growing number of multinational companies boosting investments in India, whose economy expanded nearly 8 percent last year as demand surged for its vast pool of English-speaking and relatively low-wage technical workers. The investments will go into starting centers to automate information technology services and provide clients with "one-stop shop" for hardware information and products. IBM also will develop a telecommunications research and innovation center at its laboratory in New Delhi and establish a hub linking IBM consultants, developers, engineers and researchers, Palmisano said. Earlier this year, the firm opened a center in Bangalore that combines its business consulting, research, software and hardware capabilities to help customers improve supply chain functions and monitor banking risks and compliance. "IBM is excited by the opportunities in India over the long term and we are also encouraged by the domestic opportunity that India offers," Palmisano said.