news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051207/ap_on_hi_te/india_microsoft_20
The investment would be among the largest an information technology compa ny has made in this country of 1 billion people that Microsoft Corp. has long viewed as having huge potential in human capital and for sales.
Bill Gates , the company's chairman and co-founder, told reporters. "The growth in e mployment for Microsoft will be more in India than the United States." A substantial part of the money would go to creating a Windows operating system designed specifically for India and available in nine Indian lang uages.
Half the money would go to improving Microsoft's research and development capabilities, including the creation of a new facility in the southern city of Bangalore, India's technology hub, the company said. On a previous visit to India in 2002, Gates announced similar plans for $ 400 million in investments. On Wednesday, he called the company's progre ss since then "fantastic," and said, "that's part of the reason we are a ble to make such a strong and increased commitment." Gates' announcement was the latest in a string of recently announced inve stments in India by American technology firms. said it planned to invest more than $1 b illion over the next five years to expand its operations in India and in vest in local technology companies. Earlier this year, Microsoft opened a research center in the southern cit y of Hyderabad, its fourth such facility worldwide. The expansion plans will nearly double Microsoft's work force in India by adding 3,000 jobs over the next three years to its existing pool of 4,0 00, Gates told business leaders on Wednesday. Microsoft's efforts in India are aimed at narrowing the digital divide by creating products that are not only affordable for the poor but also ad dress their "unique needs," he said. One idea Gates raised has long been a holy grail in computing: developing thinking machines that respond to speech in various languages and t hus render keyboards unnecessary. "India is a place where breakthroughs like these are necessary and will t ake place," Gates said. Microsoft also said Wednesday that it plans to put aside funds for comput er education and training, including adopting 100 schools for computer e ducation, and support an Indian program to offer computers and training at 100,000 centers across the country. Gates' visit comes at a time when many Indian companies are increasingly turning toward open source operating systems, particularly Linux, as a l ow-cost alternative to Windows. Open source operating systems allow users to copy, distribute and modify the program's code, and are relatively cheap compared to proprietary sys tems like Windows, which does not allow users to modify its secret code. While exact figures are hard to come by, a survey of Indian companies by Network Magazine released in June found that nearly 40 percent use Linux to run their servers. The magazine polled 340 companies, and offered no margin of error. Despite a low installed base of just 17 million computers, India's techno logy adoption is gaining momentum thanks to a booming software export in dustry and a growing domestic market.
Bill Gates, left, shakes hand s with Indian Communication and Information Technology Minister Dayanidh i Maran, before a press conference in New Delhi, India, Wednesday Dec.
The informati on contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewr itten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associ ated Press.
|
http://csua.com/feed/