Apple to open $25 million tech center in Hyderabad, India

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By Larry Banks

Apple is planning its first technology development in India, on a 250,000 sq. ft. piece of land in Hyderabad’s IT corridor in Tishman Speyer’s WaveRock facility.

According to a report by ZDNet, Apple plans to spend $25 million on the project involving jobs for around 4,500 people.

India’s Telangana State Technology Services managing director GT Venkateshwar Rao told ZDNET that the decision to locate in Hyderabad would boost the city’s image as a center for tech development.

“Microsoft’s Windows 10 was developed in Hyderabad, but it has been a global product now”, said Rao. Microsoft and Google have also announced plans to invest in India.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella previously noted an expansion of existing facilities and moves to take advantage of India’s status as the third largest place for startups, after the US and UK. Google chief Sundar Pichai recently said there would be a “huge new campus in Hyerabad” at a cost of $160 million, the first such campus outside the US and the biggest in South Asia.

Back in 2006, Apple announced plans to create a product support center in Bangalore, but the plans were shelved just months later. Apple PR said at the time the firm had “re-evaluated our plans, and have decided to put our planned support center growth in other countries”.

Apple reached the $1 billion sales mark in India last March, and more recently has been working with the Indian government to speed up the construction of retail stores in the country, held up in the past due to regulations concerning foreign ownership of stores that sell a single brand.

SOURCE: ZDNET.

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