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Our Bureau

Pune , March 8

UBICS Inc, the Pittsburgh-based IT services division of the UB group, is all set to make India as a strategic centre for its global initiatives. As part of the initiative, the company would be investing $1 million primarily on the research and development activities during its first year of operation in India, 2005-06, Mr Sunil Patil, President, Global Solutions, UBICS, said on Tuesday.

He said the R&D centre would be in Pune and would be operational by May 2005 and would have 200 personnel. Talking to presspersons, Mr Sunil said UBICS would operate in Indian through three centres - one in Pune, which would be the main R&D centre along with the sales and support centre; New Delhi would be solutions division; and Bangalorewould be sales and marketing centre. He, however, said all the three operations would have their own sales and marketing centre but would be reporting to Pune.

He said looking at the initial response from these locations, the company in its second phase would be looking at sales and marketing offices in other locations - Chennai, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Mr Sunil said the development centre in Pune and New Delhi (the solutions division) would be the hub for the UBICS global operations and would be marketing its premium products, Ventive and SeeItFirst.

Ventive is a recruitment and resourcing automation product which has done its beta testing with the Pune-based KPIT Cummins and SeeItFirst is a patented interactive streaming video technology which helps organisations to deploy video in employee communication, remote training and education, both on demand as well as real time.

The customer for the SeeItFirst is State Bank of India, which would be deploying this product in five training centres and would eventually roll it across its 9,000 branches, he said.

Mr Sunil said the solutions division has been selected for strategic projects, some in the Government sector - NIC and the Censor Board in Mumbai . He said for the NIC it acts as consultants to the e-business solutions offered.

Mr Sunil said UBICS was looking at revenue growth of 150 per cent over the next four years. Translated into figures, this would be close to $75 million, of which, 50 per cent would come in from the Indian operations.

Currently, the US accounts about 90 per cent of its revenues . He said UBICS, which had begun its operations in 1993, had concluded 2003 with a total revenue of $23 million and was estimating a growth of 20 per cent over this for 2004.

He said UBICS board has also nominated a member of the executive team to exclusively focus on the Indian operations. The current executive team includes Dr Vijay Mallaya, Chairman, UB Group, Mr Sunil Patil and Mr Girish Godbole, President of the Global services.

Mr Sunil said the headcount, which is currently 50, (Pune and New Delhi) would be increased to 300.

The operations in Bangalore are expected to begin within the next four weeks, he added.

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UBICS to make India R&D hub

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