Microsoft will hire more staff at Indian facility

BANGALORE, INDIA — Microsoft Corp. is hiring hundreds of new staff for its operations in Hyderabad over the next 12 months, the company’s chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer told reporters Monday in Bangalore, India.

Ballmer was attending the formal inauguration of the company’s new 28-acre campus in Manikonda, on the outskirts of Hyderabad in south India.

The hiring of more staff for its software development and support operations in India would not, however, lead to a loss of jobs in the U.S., Ballmer said.

Microsoft currently employs over 700 staff in Hyderabad, according to a spokeswoman at Microsoft India.

The Redmond, Washington, company announced last year that it had entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of the state of Andhra Pradesh to acquire 42.5 acres of land for a facility in Manikonda. The campus inaugurated Monday is the first phase of Microsoft’s project to have its own facilities in Hyderabad. Microsoft currently uses leased facilities for its operations.

Microsoft’s center at Manikonda has been a target of lobbies in the U.S. opposed to offshore outsourcing, including Seattle-based Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech). Earlier this year, WashTech said that as Microsoft expands its facilities in India, workers in Redmond will face direct competition from workers in India who make a fraction of their wages.

The new facility primarily combines Microsoft’s existing operations in Hyderabad, according to the spokeswoman. Redmond will continue to be Microsoft’s development hub. In line with the company’s decentralized development model, some of the work is being done in Hyderabad, although the number of staff recruited in the city will not run into thousands, she added.

Besides a product software development center in Hyderabad that works on Microsoft’s products, the company has another facility in the city that works on application development for Microsoft’s in-house information systems. Both these facilities and the company’s sales and marketing operations will now operate from the new campus.

Microsoft is just one of a number of technology companies, including Sun Microsystems Inc. and Oracle Corp., that do software development in India.

Microsoft has also set up a support center in Bangalore. Called the Global Technology Support Center, the operation offers voice and e-mail technical support to Microsoft customers worldwide. It employs about 250 staff. Microsoft also contracts software development and support work to Indian outsourcing companies.

During his visit to India, Ballmer will meet with government officials at the federal and state level.