Bill Gates keen to invest in India

Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who arrives in New Delhi on Thursday on a whistle-stop tour, said in an interview that his firm would continue to invest in India and tap the country's huge software talent.

Gates was quoted by the Business Standard daily as saying that India remained high on Microsoft's priority list.

Gates said his latest trip "marks the 10th year of Microsoft in India. "It's our 25th anniversary and we are introducing our .NET strategy ... so it's a great time to be here," he said in an e-mail interview.

The 44-year-old entrepreneur and the world's richest man said that Microsoft was committed to investing in India and tapping its workforce for research and development.

"The decision to create the R&D centre in Hyderabad was a big move for us. When we set up the development centre in India, we were very clear that they had to have projects to work on that would be distinct and executed from end-to-end," he said.

"They've made a great contribution in the development of Windows services for Unix and they will be integral in doing some of the work on the .Net platform."

He said Microsoft's presence in India reflected its "priorities of attracting great people and creating great software," adding: "We will continue to invest in India." Gates, however, refused to directly spell out whether India or neighbouring China was more important for Microsoft.

"We don't compare," he said. "In every market where Microsoft has invested, we are committed to developing a strong indigenous information technology industry. It's important to us that we are successful in India and help develop a strong local industry. The same is true in China."

Gates had made his maiden trip to India in March 1997 where he was treated like a head of state and dubbed "William the Conqueror" by the media.

India's combined IT hardware and software exports rose by 45.6 per cent to Rs 185.50 billion ($4 billion) in the year to March 2000.

India's booming IT exports are emerging as one of the key drivers of the economy, with many global IT companies sourcing software technology from India.

Tell us what you think of this report