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Intel to expand India operations

NEW DELHI AUG. 29. Intel CEO, Craig Barrett, today announced that the chip giant would triple its India headcount to about 3,000, mostly in software engineering and hardware design space over the next few years, and said its upcoming investments could range between $100 and $200 million.

"Assuming that we will start to see some recovery in business in the high-tech sector and growth will come back, our plan over the next few years is to triple our headcount in India. We have about 1,000 employees today, we would take that up to probably 3,000 range," the visiting Intel Chief told reporters here.

Mr. Barrett, who met the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, and the Communications Minister, Pramod Mahajan, earlier in the day, further said that recruitments would mostly be focussed on software engineering and later move to hardware design as well. "We are just in the process of starting a microprocessor design team in Bangalore that would focus initially on 32-bit processor," he said.

On company's proposed investments for India, Mr. Barrett said, "I do not know what the investment figure would exactly be... If in fact the business conditions improve, if we add 2,000 employees it is assumed that we have to invest somewhere in the range of $100-200 million just to support that increase in headcount".

However, Mr. Mahajan at an MoU signing ceremony between the Department of IT and Intel, had earlier in the day said Intel would be investing about $130 million over the next few years. The MoU envisages joint working in the areas of education and e-governance.

Mr. Barrett said Intel's initial plans would be more concentrated on the engineering, design side as opposed to manufacturing and production.

"My assessment is that you still need to make improvements in basic infrastructure... everything from logistics, transportation, power and water to be competitive with some of the other Asian countries for manufacturing," Mr. Barrett said while lauding India for being competitive in engineering software, hardware design point.

On Intel's plans to invest in start-up companies in India, Mr. Barrett said, "We continue to look for opportunities to invest here".

Stating that the company had a current portfolio of between 25 to 30 companies in India and about 500 companies globally, he admitted the investment rate was substantially lower than what it was some years ago as "the overall venture capital investment levels are down".

"We are still looking for opportunities here... Our venture capital activities are primarily strategic in nature to invest in companies which have exciting technology," he pointed out.

— PTI

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