The rise of multinational IT in India

Courtesy: Reuters Multinational companies have been setting up information technology operations in India for more than 20 years. Following are some highlights of the move: 1988 Intel starts its Indian operations by setting up a sales office in Bangalore. 1989 Hewlett-Packard begins R&D work in India. 1993 Oracle, one of the first multinationals to set up an Indian back-office operation, launches a wholly owned subsidiary in India to develop its software programs. 1994 Oracle opens India Development Center in Bangalore. 1997 GE Capital International Services (GECIS) starts back-office services operation, providing services such as finance and accounting, call centers, insurance claims processing, analytics, customer training and IT services. 1998 Computer software giant Microsoft Corp starts operations at a software development center in Hyderabad. Motorola Inc invests $3.5 million to set up a design centre in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi. Four years later it announces the establishment of a software development center in Bangalore at a cost of $13 million. Bangalore-based Intel India Development Centre, its largest non-manufacturing site outside of the US, commences operations. IBM sets up research lab in Delhi. SAP Labs India starts operations in India. Oracle establishes second development center in Hyderabad. 2000 Infotech startup Spectramind Ltd invests 1 billion rupees ($23 million) to set up a back-office center to process transactions for Internet portals worldwide. Venture capital firm Chrysalis Capital would provide funds to the firm. Software giant Wipro would invest $10 million in 2001. GECIS grows rapidly to become the largest IT-enabled services provider in India. It hires 6,000 employees, prompting the company to post signs around its premises warning "Trespassers Will Be Recruited". 2001 Consulting firm Accenture establishes the Bombay technology development center as part of what will eventually be more than 20 such facilities worldwide. Accenture plans to service about 35 clients from the Bombay facility, with almost 98 percent of the work done for non-Indian clients. Dell forms R&D center. 2003 Internet media company Yahoo Inc launches research and development unit in Bangalore, its first software development center outside the United States. 2004 Google starts R&D center in Bangalore, its first R&D center outside the United States. IBM Corp acquires Daksh, India's third-largest back-office services firm, in the biggest acquisition yet in the nation's booming outsourcing sector. 2005 IBM extends research lab to Bangalore. 2006 Cisco establishes Globalisation Centre East in Bangalore. IBM announces plans to invest nearly $6 billion in India over three years, underscoring the country's growing importance as a global hub for information technology expertise. German software maker SAP says it will invest $1 billion over the next five years in India to expand operations and double its headcount. 2008 Accenture formally opens its Technology Lab in Bangalore, its fourth such facility following sites in the United States and France. IBM says it will invest $100 million in global mobile services research over the next five years. The majority of the research for the project will be directed from India. IBM India has the second largest workforce in the company, after the US. SAP's third Co-Innovation Lab inaugurated in Bangalore, after such labs in Palo Alto, California, and Tokyo, Japan.