Microsoft To Set Up R&D Operations In India

Microsoft Corporation plans to step up its R&D operations out of India and expand activity across six functional divisions in India. The company is working towards establishing a separate centre of excellence for its to-be-launched Vista operating system that would work on integration of Vista OS with other systems in a technology environment while also handling migration services.

The company's India Development Centre at Hyderabad currently employs about 1,200 people and added about 500 of them last year. Going by the current rate, it could potentially add 500 more during the year.

While it would not like to break up number additions team-wise, as per the company plan outlined it is proposed to increase India headcount from the current 4,000 people to 7,000 by 2009.