Oracle to invest $400 mn in India

Company announces new campus in Bengaluru, largest outside of its headquarters; to set up nine incubation centres

Enterprise software company, Oracle, on Friday said it would invest $400 million in India to build a new campus in Bengaluru apart from setting up incubation centres and training the students in computer science skills.

Unveiling the plan after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Safra Catz, CEO of the California-headquartered company said the investments are aimed at supporting the country's Digital India and Skill India initiatives.

Apart from the new 2.8 million sq ft campus in Bengaluru, the company's largest outside of its headquarters, Oracle plans to set up nine incubation centers across the country and also impart computer science training to over half a million students every year through Oracle Academy.

"Oracle has been in India for over 25 years and during that time we've grown our investments tremendously," said Catz. "We are investing over $400 million in Bengaluru, opening nine incubation centers, and training half a million students each year during this expansion phase to support India's tremendous growth."

India is Oracle's second largest employee base outside of the United States, with around 40,000 current employees and an additional 2,000 current job openings.

"I'm particularly excited about the incubation centers which will house substantial software and technology capabilities, tools, and training to help launch new technology startups built utilising Java and the Oracle platform," Catz added.

The new Oracle campus in Bengaluru is expected to be the epicenter of company's operations in India, and would accommodate more than 11,000 employees from diverse fields starting from engineering, sales and marketing, global support, finance and consulting, the company said.

The company also said that the incubation centres would support entrepreneurship and development of innovative start-ups by providing software, tools, and training to firms utilising Java and the Oracle platform. These centres would be located in Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nodia, Pune, Trivandrum and Vijayawada,

Currently, Oracle Academy partners with more than 1,700 educational institutions in India, to advance computer science education and drive knowledge, innovation, skills development, and diversity in technology fields. Globally, it trains more than 2.6 million students in 106 countries.