Microsoft to continue harnessing Indian talent

Unfazed by the growing protectionism in the US, where it is headquartered, Global information technology giant Microsoft has said that the company will continue to harness the Indian talents for its various activities.

"As far as Microsoft is concerned, we will continue to harness Indian talents.

"Microsoft has great faith on Indian talents and their productivity.

"So whether harnessing the skills of the developers community here or people who we want to hire for our organization, we will continue to do that," Bhaskar Pramanik, chairman or Microsoft India told Business Standard.

Microsoft which entered India in 1990 today employs over 5,300 people in the country across the various business units including Microsoft India R&D centre and Microsoft Research. India is said to be the second-largest employee base for the company outside of the US.

The ongoing economic crisis coupled with growing unemployment problem has made the US tightening of its policies to restrict jobs going to offshore.

This has not only put pressure on the Indian IT services

companies, but for the large American IT giants who use offshore locations to tap talents.

"I think the IT companies in India are extremely competent and they understand the challenges of the external environment.

"So, they very well understand how they are going to manage the situation," said Pramanik, who is also a member of the Executive Council of Nasscom.

"I don't think anybody is worried. These things will continue to happen time and again. But we know how to confidently work through those," he added.

Recently, a senate committee had said technology giants Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard used their offshore units to shield taxes, what both the companies protested vehemently.

For Microsoft, India is also a growing market for its various products and platforms.

The company seems to be steadily growing its India revenues.

It has now improved its position as one of the top-3 fastest growing subsidiaries of Microsoft globally, according to Pramanik. India, according to various media reports, was one of the top 5 fastest growing subsidiaries for Microsoft last year.

The other fastest growing subsidiaries for the company are China, Brazil, South Africa and Turkey.