SPACE WIRE
India's technology hub sees growth in investment in first quarter
BANGALORE, India (AFP) Jul 06, 2004
India's IT hub Bangalore saw a slight increase in foreign investment in the past three months, with 49 technology firms opening shop investing 6.7 billion rupees (146.5 million dollars), an official said Tuesday.

In the fiscal year that ended in March, an average of 42 foreign firms investing six billion rupees each opened up in Bangalore each quarter.

B.V. Naidu, director of Software Technology Parks of India which promotes software exports, said that of the 49 firms that opened offices between April and June, 12 were focused purely on technology and 11 on outsourcing.

Bangalore, the technology and aviation hub of India, is home to about 1,500 foreign and technology firms including Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Sun Microsystems and Texas Instruments.

Software exports from the state of Karnataka, which includes Bangalore, jumped 46 percent in the last fiscal year due to rapid growth in outsourcing. The state accounts for one-third of India's software exports.

The United States took 64 percent of the exports while Europe emerged as the second favoured destination with 24 percent.

SPACE.WIRE