Anew generation of researchers is being groomed half a world away from Microsoft’s sprawling Seattle headquarters at Microsoft’s research center on a leafy lane in India’s tech capital.
Complete with beanbags and coffee served in steel tumblers, the center is helping change the perception that India is no place for top-end research and development (R&D).
Staffed with about 60 full-time researchers, many of them Indians with doctorates from top US universities, the center is at the cutting edge of Microsoft’s R&D. It covers seven areas of research, including mobility and cryptography.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Its success, including developing a popular tool for Microsoft’s new search engine Bing, underscores the potential of R&D in India at a time when firms are keen to save money by using talented researchers abroad.
Showing off the Bing tool, which enables searches for locations with incomplete or even incorrect addresses, B. Ashok, a director of a research unit at the center, said the innovation would never have taken root if the R&D had been done in the US.
“It was completely inspired by the Indian environment, but is applicable worldwide,” he said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
India might seem like a natural location to expand offshoring into R&D, but this is hampered by problems that range from not enough home grown researchers to a lack of government support.
India produces about 300,000 computer science graduates a year, but only about 100 computer science doctorates.
“Students here are not exposed to research from an early age, faculties are not exposed to research and there’s no career path for innovation because there’s a lot of pressure to get a ‘real’ job,” said Vidya Natampally, head of strategy at the Microsoft India Research Center.
With few government incentives and an education system that emphasizes rote learning, India lacks the environment found in say, Silicon Valley, where universities and startups encourage innovation.
“China has a policy in place for R&D. We don’t,” Natampally said.
India’s lagging R&D environment is blunting the country’s edge, analysts warn. Rival China has pulled ahead, with more than 1,100 R&D centers, compared with less than 800 in India.
Aside from providing funding to encourage students to pursue doctorates, China offers tax breaks for R&D centers and its special economic zones provide infrastructure for high-tech and R&D industries.
India is also losing out in the patent stakes. In 2006 and 2007, just 7,000 patents were granted in India, compared with nearly 160,000 in the US.
“We’re nowhere near the US or even Israel when it comes to innovations,” said Praveen Bhadada at consultancy Zinnov, which estimates the R&D sector in India is worth about US$9.2 billion. “Our costs are low and our talent pool is ahead of China, Russia and Ukraine, but China gives specific incentives and produces way more PhDs.”
India is cheaper than China for R&D, but salaries have been rising by about 15 percent every year and may soon reach parity with China.
Microsoft and other firms have been working around the government’s indifference.
Cisco, IBM, Intel, Nokia, Ericsson and Suzuki Motor have all gone beyond low-end coding and tweaking products for the local market, with hefty investments and recruitment.
Their success shows India’s potential if the government starts supporting such ventures.
Texas Instruments and San Jose-based Cadence Design were among the first to set up R&D in India in the mid-1980s, drawn by the legions of English-speaking software engineers who could be hired at about 20 percent of the cost of engineers in the US.
The opening of India’s economy in the early 1990s and the establishment of the software services industry drew more foreign firms looking to cut costs and tap emerging markets.
“From when a few companies offshored non-critical design work, we have seen India emerge as a preferred destination for design and development of chip, board and embedded software,” said Jaswinder Ahuja, managing director of Cadence India.
Firms first focused on the “D” in R&D, but research has grown in importance and many of the facilities in India are now the largest outside their home base.
Half of Cisco’s core R&D work, including innovations in WiMAX and optical networks, and about 40 percent of SAP’s ideas for processes and product development come from India.
IBM’s India Research Labs do a “fair share of patenting,” boosting its record numbers every year, director Guruduth Banavar said in Bangalore.
Its new US$100 million-mobile communications research, Mobile Web, is the first time a big project has been driven from outside the US, he said.
“For a research lab, it’s the best environment to be in: You can see the problems and the opportunities,” said Banavar, who was previously at IBM’s lab in Boston and has, like several of his peers, returned to India to oversee operations.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source