IBM said June 6 it will triple its investments in India to $6 billion over the next three years. "That investment will ensure that we make the most of the opportunities to grow this market place while it also enables IBM to fulfil its vision to become a globally integrated company," Samuel Palmisano, chairman and chief executive officer of IBM told IBM employees in high-tech Bangalore city. Palmisano is in Bangalore to attend an annual analysts' meeting on the compnay, the first time it is being held outside the United States.
The investment will be mainly in the areas of research, software, hardware and computer services.
IBM, one of the largest technology firms in Bangalore, employs 43,000 professionals in all. It started operations in India in 1992 and by last year had 23,000 local hires, nearly half its workforce, making it the country's sixth largest IT employer.
India's premier software body, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and consulting firm McKinsey and Co. estimate the global service outsourcing business will be worth $110 billion by 2010 and that Indian companies will get more than half of that.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
