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News >> Technology >>
Microsoft to up Indian developer's count
By siliconindia
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Friday, 03 October 2003, 19:30 IST
BANGALORE: Microsoft is investing $100 million here over the next five years to double the number of Indian developers working on its technologies.
Currently, MS technologies constitute around 20-25 per cent of the total $8 billion offshore work done from India. In India, around 3,000 firms, involving over 2.5 lakh developers and thousands of product support executives, are currently working on Microsoft technologies.
As global corporates look at India for outsourcing their computer wares, Microsoft is stepping its investment and go-to-market agreements with systems integrators (SIs), consultants and application developers in the country.
"India is a growth market for our enterprise product business as it is becoming the destination of choice for the global businesses," says Simon Witts, corporate V-P (Partnership and Enterprise Group) of Microsoft.
He said India's relevance was growing for the company as more and more global SIs and computer services companies were setting up operations here.
Commenting on the backlash in the US against offshoring to India among other countries, he said, "No one can have protective policy for businesses which are global in nature. Work should be done where skills are available."
Microsoft's 'enabling partners' programme with Indian companies is gaining strategic importance as the software giant is moving from desktop only environments to desktop and enterprise segments.
Microsoft's Indian partners such as HP and TCS have developed messaging and portal solutions, while Wipro has developed workflow applications. Ravi Shankar of HP says his company has over 200 Microsoft-certified professionals in India alone. (Source: ET)