The Hindu Business Line : Microsoft eyes new locations

MICROSOFT is gearing up to increase its presence in India and is considering the option of expanding its existing facilities in the Capital, Hyderabad and Bangalore or looking at newer locations such as Chennai, Kolkata or Pune, Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft Corporation India, has said.

Mr Venkatesan was speaking on the occasion of `Digital Maharashtra - Promoting competitiveness of knowledge-based industry', organised by CII here on Monday.

Mr Venkatesan, who is also member of the CII's National Council, took the opportunity to call upon the Maharashtra Government to pitch more aggressively for a slice of the huge IT market and focus on getting key companies to come in so that the rest of the industry would follow suit.

He said while the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister discussed the issue of the company's expansion plans with him, as also did West Bengal's IT Minister, there was no strong pitch from the Maharashtra Government.

Mr Venkatesan, who has worked in Pune during his stint as Chief at Cummins group, also called upon the State Government to accord priority status to the development of IT and take the initiative in promoting e-governance in the country.

Meanwhile, the company has signed a MoU with the Maharashtra Government for Project Shiksha, an initiative that will train an estimated 8,000 teachers from government schools beginning 2005.

The company is now gearing up to release a Marathi version of the Windows and MS Office package at more economical rates, Mr Venkatesan said.

Project Shiksha will be done in collaboration with NIIT and aims at ensuring that the trained teachers will impart the training to an estimated 35 lakh students. Mr Venkatesan said his company would focus on the area of education in which it will spend $20 million in the country in the next 3-5 years. The company plans to roll out a similar initiative in Karnataka and Uttaranchal, he said.

Microsoft has undertaken a study on IT productivity in India in joint venture with Nasscom and will release a report on the same in early 2005, he said.