Microsoft to invest $150 M in Pune

By agencies   |   Thursday, 27 July 2006, 19:30 IST
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PUNE: All set to announcing its single biggest IT investment in the city, Microsoft is ready to pump in $150 million in a mega software development center in Pune. Microsoft investment would be outside the Hinjewadi IT Park. The venture is second in line after TCS recently announced an investment. Arvind Kumar, IT secretary, government of Maharashtra is confident of the futuristic progress for the State. "This is only the beginning. We are hard selling Maharashtra to every possible MNC," Kumar said on Wednesday. Kumar said the state is also in discussions with other multinational IT companies like Hewlett Packard and IBM to bring in their future investments into the state. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting organized by CSI in Pune, Kumar said: "It's time we got out of the office and sold the state to these big IT investors." The state has thrown open the option and is wooing investors in the sector, trying to offer them whatever they ask for. Arrangements were being made to make sure that hardware majors were also given the same fiscal benefits as the software ones and a proposal is being set up to see if free land could be granted to investors in tier II and III cities, if not Mumbai and Pune, was being considered. The cities being promoted are Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Amravati.