Intel not keen on hardware production in India
Lucknow, Apr 7 (UNI) Even as Intel Corporation has pledged to invest over a billion US dollars in the next five years to expand operations in India, the world's largest chip maker is not keen on setting up its production facility in the country any time soon.
''As India makes large strides in IT field with its rich human capital, Intel is committed to nurture important technologies for local use. However, there are no immediate plans to commence hardware production in the country,'' Intel, Director, South Asia, Customer Solutions Group, Surendra Arora told UNI here.
Mr Arora, however, maintained that India figured prominently on the Intel business map.
''We have on rolls about 3,000 IT professionals at our Bangalore unit, who are purely into product development for domestic and global market consumption,'' he added.
Asked if Intel was planning to raise headcount in India this fiscal, he said, ''Any decision in this regard will be in line with our strategic vision for the country.'' Mr Arora was in town recently to announce a multi-dimensional partership of Microsoft/Intel with the Uttar Pradesh government to help accelerate IT usage and e-governance in the state.
The strategic areas identified for the partnership include joint efforts for delivering affordable personal computer (PC) options, ushering e-governance, accelerating IT literacy and enabling access to technology in UP rural areas.
Rohit Kumar Country Head (Public Sector), elaborated on plans to make the usage of vernacular software more popular in specific regions of the country to help IT penetratation more effective and extensive.
''We are particularly focussing on Hindi and Tamil language software,'' Mr Kumar said.
Meanwhile, Intel and Microsoft have been invited by UP to set up facilities in the state.
UP Development Council (UPDC) Chairman and ruling Samajwadi Party National General Secretary Amar Singh has promised 100-200 acres of land in the industrial corridor of Lucknow Industrial Development Authority (LIDA) between Lucknow and Kanpur, if they decide to invest in the region.
''Lucknow and Kanpur have immense potential to become IT hubs since they boast of IIM and IIT respectively apart from several other reputed institutes, which means there is no crunch of quality human capital at disposal,'' he added.
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