HSBC to set-up $ 21 m development facility in Pune

PUNE: The Hongkong and Shangai Banking Corporation ( HSBC) plans to invest $
21 million in Pune over the next 5 years to set up a 110,000 sq feet software
development facility.

Howard Parkinson, British Deputy High Commissioner who led a commercial team
was pretty upbeat on Pune emerging as an attractive IT destination for British
companies. "IT has developed well here since our last visit. Since then, we
have launched the British Business Group to ensure that there is more
interaction between the two nations," he told a group of mediapersons.

ALMT Legal, Dalal Mott McDonald, Technoclean India, West LB, Ernst &
Young, Crown Relocations, the British Tourist Authority, Invest UK - the British
government's inward investment arm and Trade Partners, UK were among the nine
member team that would be visiting around 40 companies in Pune to explore
possible investments.

Nihilent Technologies, Cognizant, Tata Honeywell are just some of the IT
companies that the British commercial team plan to visit. On HSBC's expansion
plans, Chris Hothersall, deputy CEO, HSBC said that Pune was the preferred
choice for the facility because of the huge pool of talent that the city offers
in terms of a skilled IT workforce. The corporation is planning to expand its
operations in India by employing around 1,500 people over the next one year.

HSBC has a processing center in Hyderabad and another one will be opened in
Bangalore. A software development center of the bank is functioning from Pune.
The Pune center will take care of programming and will boast of around 100
employees by the year 2004.

The new back-office processing center in Bangalore employs 600 and the
Hyderabad center will increase its workforce to 1,800 next year from the current
strength of 1,100.For the present, the software center in Pune would employ 300
people. The bank has already invested around $15 million in Hyderabad.