IBM centres global network in India

IBM said today that it would triple its investments in India to $6bn ($4.6bn) in the next three years, as the South Asian country becomes a cornerstone in the global network of the world’s largest computer services company.

Chairman and Chief Executive Sam Palmisano said the investment will be used to build service delivery centres in Bangalore, India’s technology hub, and create a telecommunications research and innovation centre for IBM clients around the world.

Palmisano also said IBM would increase the number of its employees in Bangalore, without elaborating.

In the past three years, the company has invested more than $2bn (€1.55bn), and hired more than 30,000 people in India, taking its staff in the country from 9,000 to 42,000 today.

“India and other emerging economies are increasingly (becoming) important part of IBM’s global success,” Palmisano told some 10,000 IBM employees and investment analysts at the company’s facility in Bangalore. Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was also present.

Palmisano was to meet later today with the analysts to brief them on IBM’s work in India and its global plans for next year, an annual talk ordinarily held in New York.

Although IBM began its India operations in the early 1990s, the real momentum came after 2003 when it began making India a key base to support services for clients around the globe.

The expansion in India has not only helped IBM cut costs by tapping low cost labour, but provided new revenues.