INTEL INDIA is playing a key role in technology development and innovation, says Arjun Batra, the Intel India Development Center (IIDC) Business Development and U.S. Operations Manager. Batra plays a significant role in the talent augmentation needs of the chip giant, and has been closely involved with siliconindia’s Jobs in India career fairs. “By 2005, we will have moved in our second building on our forty-three acre campus and will be able to house several thousand employees,” he says. Batra faces the challenge of finding the right talent for the booming needs in India, with a mandate of filling some of the critical positions in the coming quarters.

As one of the global resource centres for the corporation, Intel India is delivering critical hardware and software projects from India, while also propelling the Indian market itself in expanding the adoption of Information and Communications Technologies in all market segments—consumer, small and large businesses, government and education. What began as a five-man team working on device drivers in 1999 has now grown year-over-year into a full-fledged hardware and software technology development center in the heart of Bangalore, including a small Intel Capital team that is investing in the Indian entrepreneurial space.

The India Development Centre is actually among the youngest in Intel’s world. In comparison, the Israel Development Centre, the first Intel development centre outside the U.S., has been around for 30 years and Malaysia has had many design and development groups for over a decade. Today, Intel’s India development centre includes Desktop Platforms Group, Enterprise Platforms Group, Intel Communications Group, Mobile Platforms Group, Technology and Manufacturing Group, Finance and Enterprise Services and Intel Capital.

“The e-business group handles the development of some of the advanced enterprise applications for internal use within the corporation,” says Batra, “while the Intel Communications Group has been working on advanced switching solutions for modular server platforms and strategic enterprise customers. The Enterprise Platform Group in India is charged with the responsibility for designing the high-end IA-32 processor end-to-end. Every business group in Intel has presence at Intel India now. The emerging market of India, the availability of large skilled engineering resources and the willingness of experienced professionals to work in this dynamic environment attracted Intel to investing in a development centre at Bangalore in synch with the company’s global vision for technology and market development,” says Batra.

“Intel’s India development centre has already designed chipsets for digital home technology and has a team developing the next generation chipsets for the mobile platform and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radio,” says Intel India president Ketan Sampat. Sampat returned from the U.S. to India and is instrumental in shaping the future of both Intel India and IIDC. The core leadership team in Intel India—formed by talent from around the world—is helping Intel set up a dependable force in India that had imbibed the Intel culture, and was known for delivering results.


Today, the Intel India’s manager says, he notices two growing trends in the global movement of workforce. “We have noted interest among all professionals to work in India. They are attracted by the phenomenal experience of working in the Indian market environments, using the experience as a furthering step in their career advancement. The other growing trend is of second generation Indian Americans who were born and educated here and seek a period of immersion in the Indian market and culture,” says Batra. “These Indians have only visited India during holidays, and now wish to develop deeper ties to the country. Some not only expect to gain professional experience, but have hopes of finding life partners during their stints in India,” he jokingly recalls.

Till last year, remembers Batra, candidates he met were a bit leery of the Intel permanence and motive in India, wondering if the interest was just an experiment. But over the last year, as the campuses have flourished and key projects of multi-year durations have been allocated to IIDC-based teams, potential candidates have no doubt about Intel's commitment to India. “People are surprised when we tell them that Intel Sales and Marketing has been in India since 1988 (even though the development centre came a lot later),” remarks Batra. The team in India uses the same leading edge technologies, tools and facilities as their worldwide counterparts. Some projects are independently owned by the team in India, while others are done in collaboration or sharing mode with other global teams.

“The most pressing issue today is to inculcate the Intel culture within the new members of this team assembled in such a short time. It is our commitment, and is something of a challenge today to bring new members into the Intel culture fold, as we rapidly ramp up our team strength. People coming from other companies have to have an opportunity to learn, imbibe and get comfortable with Intel company culture,” says Batra. “On a site of thousands of employees, you have most of the employees who come from other companies. Our biggest challenge in India is to transfuse the culture across this massive population quickly.” The leadership team is working with worldwide offices to bring deeper exchanges between employees, at time bringing the members to the U.S. offices and other Intel offices for extended periods of time.

Arjun Batra himself plays a key role in the IIDC’s increasing role-play as an Intel global arm. Based in the U.S., he works closely with the various business groups within the U.S. He supports their evaluation of India (among other international sites) as a key emerging market to have presence in and ensures expansions of appropriate new groups. Being a true international company, Intel has a lot of experience of setting up and running successful operations in global locations. Batra and his support team have collected a set of Best Known Methods (BKM) applicable for landing of new groups in India. “For Intel having operations and development centres in international locations and emerging markets is business as usual,” he says.