Microsoft
plans to augment its outsourcing
operations from India.
The world’s largest software company
plans to double its staff strength
at its Indian centres in Hyderabad
and Bangalore by March 2006, a top
company official said late on Saturday.
"We aim to ramp up the strength
at the India Development Centre
(in Hyderabad) by another 1,000
professionals," Tess Field,
Microsoft's head of human resources
in India, said on the sidelines
of a management convention.
The Hyderabad campus in Andhra Pradesh
is the software maker's largest
campus outside the United States
and provides product development
and support services.
The 28-acre (11 hectare) campus,
which opened last November, also
houses a global delivery centre
and is part of a three-year, $400
million investment plan for India
announced in 2002.
Microsoft also plans to double the
headcount to around 1,000 staff
members at its technology centre
in premier software hub of Bangalore,
Field said.
India's $17.2-billion software services
industry employs about 1 million
people. Exports of software and
business services are forecast to
grow 30 to 32 per cent in the year
to March 2006, powered by the country's
low-cost, IT-savvy and English-speaking
workforce.