Microsoft to set up R&D unit, its 2nd in Asia

Microsoft Corporation is further expanding its presence in India with plans to open a research centre in Bangalore.

The latest Microsoft research campus will open in January 2005, the Redmond, Washington-based software giant said yesterday.

The researchers in India will focus on ways to create, store and search information in multiple languages, as well as technology for use in emerging markets and other specialties.

Microsoft already operates research campuses in Beijing; Cambridge, England; Redmond; San Francisco and Silicon Valley. The company decided to add an Indian campus to take advantage of promising computer science students coming out of universities there, said Rick Rashid, a vice president in charge of research. The company hopes to hire a couple dozen researchers over the next year, he said.

Microsoft research campuses, modelled after academic research facilities, do work that is relevant to Microsoft's product line-up, such as security or search technology. Products including the Tablet PC have come out of the research arm.

But researchers also are encouraged to work on far-flung ideas that may never turn into profitable products, like tools for developing hiv vaccines.

The new centre will be headed by P Anandan, previously a senior researcher in computer vision and video analysis at Microsoft's Redmond campus.

The announcement comes just weeks after Microsoft moved into a new larger campus in Hyderabad and CEO Steve Ballmer announced it "will be hiring developers by the hundreds."

This new campus, its largest outside the United States, is expected to eventually employ 3,000 programmers from the current 1,250. Microsoft joins the ever-growing list of global corporations such as IBM, HP and more recently Google, which have started research labs in Bangalore.

According to a analyst, "This move by Microsoft is to understand the needs of the Indian IT market which is growing dynamically and also to tap into the illustrious talent pool in India. More and more Indians in the US are willing to move back to India and this is also a large base to tap into. I don't think this is a move to cut costs or to move work offshore."

"This new research lab underscores Microsoft's commitment to partnership with India, and builds on our strong collaboration over the past 10 years," said Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India.

"Microsoft recognises the tremendous potential of India's people and the Indian IT industry, and we believe our shared efforts can help realise India's potential and bring the benefits of technology to billions of people."