Tata Sons to set up China software unit

MUMBAI: Tata group, which owns the country's largest software services
exporter, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), is setting up an IT services
subsidiary in China, a TCS spokesman said on Wednesday.

"We got the license to do business in China and a separate company,
which will be a 100 per cent arm of Tata Sons, has been registered," he
said.

Unlisted TCS is a division of Tata Sons which is the holding company of the
Tata Group, India's second largest business conglomerate by revenue. More
details would be available at a press conference due at noon in New Delhi, the
spokesman said.

The Economic Times newspaper reported on Wednesday that the China unit,
called Tata Information Technologies, would support TCS' software development
business.

Indian IT service companies, facing a slowdown in business from the key US
market, are aggressively eyeing other regions to broaden their customer base.
Some are exploring the formation of software development centers in China to
cater to that growing market and its neighbours.

Chinese premier Zhu Rongji in January granted approval to Infosys
Technologies, India's No. 2 software exporter, to set up a branch office in
Shanghai. However, Infosys said last week its plans for a development center in
China had been delayed. The Nasdaq-listed Infosys is now considering only a
representative office in China.

Satyam Computer Services, India's No 4 software exporter, already has a
branch in Shanghai and plans to set up a software development center in China.

(C) Reuters Limited.