Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said Tuesday the company was developing cutting edge software products in India and not just outsourcing work. "We have taken a very different approach. We are doing cutting edge development for our products. We want access to the phenomenal engineering talent graduating out of Indian universities," he told NDTV news channel.
Many information technology companies outsource software work to India, but a large amount of the work remains low-end software development that does not require sophisticated engineering skills.
For instance, Ballmer said its software development centre in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad was doing critical work like building server systems, updating the Windows software and adding extensions to it.
"It (the India centre) is just not there to supplement. It is a real development operation," he said.
Microsoft opened Monday an expanded software development unit that could quadruple employment in Hyderabad, its first base outside of the United States. It began operations in 1988 and now has 420 employees. The new unit can employ up to 1,600 workers.
Ballmer also met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and discussed the need for building a strong knowledge-based economy and increased investment by the government in India's information technology, a statement said.
"Not many people are buying personal computers in India and China beyond the middle class. We've got to partner with hardware industry to make approaches to the broader community and society," Ballmer said.
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