Oracle unveils big-ticket expansion plans in India

Oracle CEO announced a state-of-the-art Oracle campus in Bengaluru, nine regional software and technology incubation centres and an initiative to train over 500,000 Indian students every year

In a fillip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India initiative, global software and cloud major Oracle on Friday unveiled three big-ticket investment plans, keeping its commitment to expand further in the country.

After meeting Modi here on Friday, Oracle Chief Executive Officer Safra Catz announced three major initiatives that include a state-of-the-art Oracle campus in Bengaluru, nine regional software and technology incubation centres across the country and an initiative to train over 500,000 Indian students every year.

"Oracle has been in India for over 25 years. During that time we've grown our investments tremendously. In fact, India now represents our second largest employee base outside the US, with nearly 40,000 current employees and an additional 2,000 current job openings," said Catz, who is in India on her maiden visit, in a statement.

"We are investing over $400 million in Bengaluru, opening nine incubation centres and training half a million students each year during this expansion phase to support India's tremendous growth," Catz added.

Spread over 2.8 million square feet, the cutting-edge campus will be Oracle's largest outside its iconic headquarters in Redwood Shores, California.

Expected to be the epicentre of its operations throughout India, more than 11,000 employees from diverse fields, including engineering, sales and marketing, global support, finance and consulting, will converge at the high-tech site.

The nine incubation centres will support entrepreneurship and development of innovative start-ups by providing software, tools and training to new software and technology companies utilising Java and the Oracle platform.

These centres will be located in Bengaluru, Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Thiruvananthpuram and Vijayawada.

Currently, Oracle engineers in Bengaluru are developing next-generation software that powers some of the world's most successful and innovative businesses and brands.

The team plays a critical role in advancing the capabilities and functionalities of Oracle Cloud.

Oracle Academy plans to engage with local schools and universities to train more than half a million students throughout India in computer science each year.

"Increasing diversity and creating opportunities for women in technology starts with investing in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and computer science education for girls," said Catz.

"Student learning and training has been a focus at Oracle for more than 20 years, and we are expanding our curriculum to include girls-only programmes," she noted.

Oracle Academy currently 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.