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Google to set up in India

Staff CNETAsia

Published: 15 Dec 2003 15:10 GMT

US-based Google, the world's top-ranked Internet search engine, said it will open its first international research and development centre in Bangalore, India in early 2004.

A Google spokesman said the move was not motivated by wage cost-savings, but was to take advantage of India's engineering and technical talent, Reuters reported. India, with its huge pool of highly educated, English-speaking IT workers, is a leading destination for outsourcing. The comparatively low wages make it highly attractive for high-technology companies and cheaper outsourcing contracts. However, there is growing resentment in the US and Europe over shifting with outsourcing contracts and international expansion.

Google, a privately held company founded in 1998, is widely expected to be planning an initial public offering in 2004. The IPO is expected to raise around $15bn. The company has about 1,000 employees working in 21 offices. Most are in the US, with its engineering staff concentrated at its California headquarters and at its current R&D centres in California and New York.

Around 100 engineers will be hired for the Bangalore R&D centre, The Times of India, an Indian daily, reported.

Google already employs Indian-born engineers, such as Krishna Bharat, an IIT Chennai graduate who is Principal Scientist at Google, and started Google News. Bharat will be part of the R&D team moving to Bangalore for hiring. In an interview with The Times of India, he said Google would be able to compete with other high-tech multinational employers, such as General Electric and Hewlett Packard, for engineering talent because of the "exciting work" Google does.

The team will return to Bangalore and begin hiring in January 2004.