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Mr Pramod Mahajan had told reporters in the morning after a meeting with Mr Barrett that Intel had decided to invest $130 million in India over the next three years. Mr Barrett did not substantiate this number.

Mr Craig R. Barrett, CEO, Intel, celebrating his birthday with Mr Pramod Mahajan, Minister for Information Technology & Communication, in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI, Aug. 29

INTEL Corporation, the world's largest microprocessor maker, plans to triple the number of its people in India and assign more high-end research work to its Bangalore development centre, but does not intend to set up a manufacturing facility in the country, its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Craig R. Barrett, has said.

"We will triple our headcount in India from today's about 1,000 to 3,000 in the next 2-3 years. Our primary target is to do software engineering work from here, but we are increasingly moving towards hardware designing," Mr Barrett said here at a press conference.

He said a design team was being established at the Bangalore Development Centre to work on the hi-tech, 32-bit Intel Architecture microprocessor design and development.

He did not put a number on Intel's future investments in India, saying that if business conditions improved and the plans worked out, the chip giant would pump in anywhere between $100-200 million in the coming years to reach the desired levels. However, the Union IT and Communication Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan, had told reporters in the morning after a meeting with Mr Barrett that Intel had decided to invest $130 million in India over the next three years. Mr Barrett did not substantiate this number at the press meet.

The Intel chief said the company would also continue to make its venture capital investments in India. The company has so far invested in 25-30 start-ups here and in over 500 worldwide.

`Poor infrastructure'

Asked whether Intel would consider setting up a chip manufacturing facility in India, Mr Barrett said there was no such immediate plan by the company in view of the poor infrastructure existing in the country.

"We have a check list of 100 items such as logistics, transport, quality water, power and availability of raw materials... when all these are considered India ranks rather poorly in comparison to China," he said.

Intel has engineering and manufacturing facility in China.

Later, delivering a key-note address to Indian industry, he said it was time India developed capabilities in hardware manufacturing as well in order to emerge as a complete `IT nation'.

"You are very good in software. Now you need to focus on software solutions, products, hardware designing, products and research and development," he said, while warning that other Asian countries such as China were increasingly offering stiff competition to India's IT prowess.

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