Sun Micro Sets Up Subsidiary In Bangalore

The $9.79-billion Sun Microsystems has set up its wholly-owned subsidiary in Bangalore. The Indian subsidiary, according to the US computer major, will have `category A' status within Sun Microsystems, listing India on par with Sun's mainline priority countries.

Sun, whose local subsidiary takes effect from July 1, 1998, insisted that the recent US sanctions following the nuclear blasts had not affected its business with the country. However, it admitted that the shipment of certain type of hardware and computers to India took more time now.

The company added that only shipments of those supercomputers with over 2000 mega tops were affected by the sanctions. "Nothing prevents us from selling to the government sectors," Bhaskar Pramanik, managing director, Sun Microsystems India, said.

Sun in India has also reported a growth of 26 per cent for the past fiscal, Pramanik added. However, he declined to give investment figures of the Indian subsidiary or revenues earned.

The other `A' category countries in Asia include Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. With the setting up of the subsidiary, the company hopes to see a further growth and expansion of Sun's presence in the country, he said. "Investments will be made with the primary focus on increasing value to our customers," he added.

The Indian operations will be enhanced by setting up logistics centres for spares, Solaris (Sun's branded product) solution centres for channel partners and end-users.

Sun's `educational services' will also focus on training in Java language and solution centres for channel partners.

The company, which started operating in India in 1987, had Wipro as its channel partner till 1995.

Following the announcement of its liaison office in 1995, the company appointed five more channel partners.

During the last fiscal, Sun supplied its products to a number of blue-chip clients across vertical segments in manufacturing, education and research, software and finance, the company said.