IT, telecoms increase R&D outsourcing to India
More companies are relying heavily on India to serve their R&D needs, a
far cry from routine tasks like call center services which sparked the
whole outsourcing boom in the country.
Frost and Sullivan estimates the R&D outsourcing market in India to grow
from 1.3 billion dollars to about 9 billion dollars by year 2010.
IT and telecoms are two closely linked industries seen eat up most of this
demand.
In IT, opportunities abound for R&D on computing architecture, encryption
and network security, human computer interface, programming language and
software engineering.
In telecoms, both service providers and manufacturers are projected to
carry out further R&D in business support systems, new versions of IP
(IPv6), video servers and wireless sensors as growing opportunities.
Nortel, for one, has said it will increase its R&D work in India. The
company makes switches and other equipment that power most networks both
in the service provider and user side.
Even though the company does not have an R&D centre of its own in India,
it works with partners Infosys, Sasken and TCS, providing its
own engineers.
To prove its strong focus on India, Nortel said it will sell products
which carry results of its R&D work in the country.
