Microsoft to open research center in India

[Engineer]

Click me!

Notice the "Not replacing jobs in the US" remark. Certainly not creating jobs in the US by this action, either.

Microsoft to Open Research Center in India

Wed Dec 1, 7:37 AM ET Technology - AP


By ALLISON LINN, AP Business Writer

SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. is further expanding its presence in India with plans to open a research center in Bangalore.

The latest Microsoft Research campus will open in January 2005, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said Tuesday. The researchers in India will focus on ways to create, store and search information in multiple languages, as well as technology for use in emerging markets and other specialties.


Microsoft already operates research campuses in Beijing; Cambridge, England; Redmond; San Francisco and Silicon Valley.


The company decided to add an Indian campus to take advantage of promising computer science students coming out of universities there, said Rick Rashid, a vice president in charge of Microsoft Research. The company hopes to hire a couple dozen researchers over the next year, he said.


The Microsoft Research campuses, modeled after academic research facilities, do work that is relevant to Microsoft's product lineup, such as security or search technology. Products including the TabletPC have come out of the research arm.


But researchers also are encouraged to work on far-flung ideas that may never turn into profitable products, like tools for developing HIV (news - web sites) vaccines.


The new center will be headed by P. Anandan, previously a senior researcher at Microsoft's Redmond campus. Anandan, a native of India, said in a statement that the country's many languages, plus the fact that most of its more than 1 billion residents have no Internet access, make it a good backdrop for researching some of computer science's most challenging problems.


The announcement comes just two weeks after Microsoft opened an office in Hyderabad, India, 340 miles north of Bangalore, and stepped up plans to hire more programmers in India. The new Hyderabad campus, its largest outside the United States, will eventually employ 3,000 programmers.


Microsoft already has offices in Bangalore for functions such as product support and sales, Rashid said.


Microsoft is one of dozens of American technology companies to set up facilities in India, taking advantage of its vast pool of skilled workers who can be hired for a fraction of the cost of those in the United States.


Matt Rosoff, an analyst with independent researchers Directions on Microsoft, said the research facility shouldn't raise fears that Microsoft will begin outsourcing key product work to India, resulting in lost jobs here.


"I think the research facilities are additive. They're not replacing (jobs) in Redmond," he said.

 

[yllus]

Good for India. 🙂

 

[dahunan]

Time for a Tax Audit of MS

They are really feeding us a line of BS if they expect us to believe these were jobs that Americans were not capable of performing.

 

[jai6638]

i dont see anything wrong with this..

"Microsoft already operates research campuses in Beijing; Cambridge, England; Redmond; San Francisco and Silicon Valley. "

Us already has 1 along with other countries.. nothing wrong with India having one either....

 

[CanOWorms]

The researchers in India will focus on ways to create, store and search information in multiple languages, as well as technology for use in emerging markets and other specialties.

Seems like it's research that's tailored for countries like India - they need multiple languages and an emerging market.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: jai6638
i dont see anything wrong with this..

"Microsoft already operates research campuses in Beijing; Cambridge, England; Redmond; San Francisco and Silicon Valley. "

Us already has 1 along with other countries.. nothing wrong with India having one either....

The US has 2 or 3 according to that statement. The one in Redmond, and either one in SF/SV or one in both SF and SV.

 

[crooked22]

But who cares... when companies expand and profit, it looks great on paper. True Americans get nothing out of it other than bragging rights saying "hey, the economy is growing". But are you?

 

[jai6638]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: jai6638
i dont see anything wrong with this..

"Microsoft already operates research campuses in Beijing; Cambridge, England; Redmond; San Francisco and Silicon Valley. "

Us already has 1 along with other countries.. nothing wrong with India having one either....

The US has 2 or 3 according to that statement. The one in Redmond, and either one in SF/SV or one in both SF and SV.

my bad....

 

[Kibbo]

Originally posted by: crooked22
But who cares... when companies expand and profit, it looks great on paper. True Americans get nothing out of it other than bragging rights saying "hey, the economy is growing". But are you?

If this does end up being profitable for MS, it will at least be good for the shareholders. That will include union and public pension plans.

If this results in better market penetration for them in asia, then their monopoly of the OS market will increase, which will be bad for the consumer. These two factors are really the only things that affect the American market. Unless some of the capital (both physical and intellectual in the form of consultants) is American.