3 technology hubs in India

HCL Tech to invest Rs 2,750 cr in 3 technology hubs in India


NEW DELHI: HCL Technologies, the country’s fifth-largest software and services firm, would invest Rs 2,750 crore, or about $625 million, over the next five years to set up three technology hubs across the country. The first such hub was inaugurated by commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath on Thursday at Greater Noida. “These hubs are fashioned after those of IBM and HP. We are going to build technologies of the future here. From invention of new technologies to operationalising, these hubs would do it all,” said HCL Technologies chairman and chief strategy officer Shiv Nadar. The technology hubs would develop new frameworks and applications. HCL would also work with its partners in developing intellectual property. “We would have beta sites in these hubs where our employees would have access to new technology developed by our partners and would test it,” said HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar. All the hubs would be set up in SEZs. HCL would invest Rs 1,000 crore in the 46-acre Greater Noida hub over the next five years. The hub is expected to employ 15,000 people and generate revenue worth $1 billion over the same period. The next two hubs would come up at Chennai and Bangalore. Both are expected to be inaugurated in the later half of next year. While the Chennai hub would be similar in size to the Greater Noida one and entail a similar investment of Rs 1,000 crore, the smaller Bangalore hub would be developed at an investment of Rs 750 crore. Both these hubs are under construction. The Greater Noida hub would focus on core technologies in home entertainment, media, publishing and content delivery space. The Bangalore one would focus on technologies in financial services while the Chennai hub would focus on lifesciences. HCL also plans to set up such hubs in tier-II cities like Madurai and Nagpur. The investment plans for these cities has not been finalised so far, said HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar. “These hubs would help us grow our revenue from the output-based pricing model, which is currently insignificant. We will bundle IP developed at these hubs with our solutions and this will help us deliver greater value to our customers,” said Mr Nayar. HCL Technologies would also start operations in Poland next month. The company would start software engineering, infrastructure management and BPO work there. “With our Poland operations, we plan to cater to the financial services hub which is Europe,” said Mr Nayar, The company also plans to set up technology centres in the US. “We could set up some of our own tech centres or acquire some of the technology companies in the US,” said Mr Nadar.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com