Hewlett Packard Chooses Bangalore

Global computing major Hewlett Packard (HP) will set up in Bangalore an India-specific incubation centre for mobile and e-services technology companies. The company expects the centre to be functional by June.

This is the third such centre that the company is setting up in the world, the other two being Helsinki and Singapore. "This centre is going to play an active role in the company's technology focus," Ganesh Ayyar, president, HP India, told Business Standard.

The centre, to be called the Mobile e-services bazaar, will incubate Indian companies dealing with mobile computing and e-services technology.

To provide the required funds for the functioning of the centre, HP will either team up with a venture capital fund or will fund it through HP's Asset Management Fund, which has funded assets worth $6 billion world wide.

 

"We are fine-tuning the funding part. Where the funds would be coming will be decided soon," Ayyar said. To set up the Singapore incubation centre, the company roped in funds from a venture capital fund and the Singapore government.

To set up the centre in Bangalore, the company will bring mobile infrastructure service providers, technology partners and application service providers to the platform.

The centre will enable companies to conduct research on various wireless technologies and e-speak, an Internet software technology platform developed in HP labs and other HP technologies.

Referring to the investments that will be pumped into the setting up of the centre, Ayyar said, "to set up the Singapore incubation centre, investments to the tune of Singapore $30 million were required. It is difficult to put a cap on the investments in the Indian centre now."

According to Ayyar, "HP believes that the Internet will evolve from a collection of web sites accessed via a PC to a virtual marketplace of Internet-based services that can be invoked, from any device."

"The centre will work on technologies that will revolutionise the way people and businesses use the net. E-services is a service-based interaction model that makes it possible to create, request and locate services on the net from any device," he said.

According to Ayyar, HP aims to address this evolution of the Net by fuelling the creation of this new generation of e-services and by building the next-generation IT infrastructure.