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Bill Gates coming to India in November

Surajeet Das Gupta & Bhupesh Bhandari in New Delhi

It is the time of the year when global chief executive officers make a beeline for India.

After American Express chairman and CEO Kenneth I Chenault and General Electric chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt, it is the turn of US' Redmond-based Microsoft Corporation's chairman and chief software architect, Bill Gates, to wing his way to India.

Gates is expected to be in India sometime next month, though Microsoft India executives are tight-lipped about his travel plans. This will be Gates' third visit to India in the last few years.

The high-profile visit comes when Microsoft has elevated India in its global gameplan.

The world's largest software company expects India to become one of its five biggest markets in the world over the next few years. (Now the country is amongst the top 30 markets for Microsoft.)

Microsoft has also announced plans to upscale its software development operations in India.

The headcount of its Hyderabad-based centre is being raised from the existing 100 to 400.

Microsoft has already spent $150 million on the centre (Gates had announced an investment of $100 million during his first visit) and is planning to pump in another $75 million. Microsoft also has a .Net development centre at Bangalore.

It is worth noting that outside the US, India is one of the few countries, apart from China, the United Kingdom and Israel, where Microsoft has decided to locate a software development centre.

India has some 100,000 software developers in the country with expertise in various Microsoft technologies.

This is the largest community of Microsoft software developers in any country after the US. Microsoft wants to use this community in its technology development efforts in the country.

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