Texas Instruments to open new research unit in India

NEW DELHI  - Micro-chip giant Texas Instruments said on Wednesday it
plans to expand its research and development presence in India by opening a new

facility in Chennai, an upcoming technology hub.






Texas makes chips for everything from flat-panel TVs to calculators, and is the
world's leading producer of those used in mobile phones. Almost three in every

five handsets are powered by chips made by the company.






The Dallas-based firm already has a research unit in Bangalore, India's tech
capital, one of the first to be set up in India by a multinational firm more

than two decades ago.






Gilles Delfassy, senior vice president for handset business at Texas, said
India's fast-paced wireless services market -- which adds more than four million

new users each month -- offered opportunities for the firm.






"Mobile phone growth in India is nothing short of a phenomenon, and the wireless
industry waits for India's next move because of the impact it will have on the

future of mobile phones," Delfassy said.






The new unit would be close to the Chennai manufacturing plants of major
customers, such as handset giant Nokia and Flextronics. The city is also home to

Indian Institute of Technology, a globally recognised engineering college.






The Bangalore facility has been an integral part of the company's efforts to
develop a single chip housing all the functionalities of a phone, a development

that would cut costs.






India has set a target of 250 million telephone users by 2007, and currently has
104 million wireless customers.






Apart from a booming telecoms market, it is also a globally feted hub for
software services. A growing tribe of companies such as Motorola Inc. and ABN

Amro Bank get millions of dollars worth of software developed in India.






Despite spectacular growth, spurred by the lowest mobile call rates in the
world, mobile penetration in a billion-plus population is only about 10 percent

as networks are still largely city-centric.






"Today, there is a huge opportunity to connect the unconnected as the majority
of India's population does not have access to communications services," he said.