In the last 11 weeks, international information technology majors and non-resident Indians have announced investment plans of around $10 billion in the country. In the last seven weeks, global players including Cisco, Intel, AMD and Microsoft have committed to investing $6.85 billion in India over the next three to five years. These investments span the entire gamut of IT services -- software, microprocessors and networking equipment.

Microsoft Corporation on December 08 announced its decision to invest $1.7 billion in India over the next four years. Earlier this week, Intel Corporation, the world's largest chip-maker, announced an investment package of $1.05 billion over the next five years.

To complete the loop, a consortium of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and SemIndia (a group of NRIs) and Indian Equipment Manufacturing company (another NRI consortium) announced plans to set up separate fabrication units.

Cisco Systems, the world's largest provider of networking equipment including routers and switches, had also recently announced an investment plan of $1.1 billion, the company's largest investment outside the United States.

The bulk of the investments made by the IT majors have been to strengthen their research and development activities in the country.

While half of Microsoft's investments will be used for the company's R&D centres, Cisco Systems will invest $750 million of its total $1.1-billion commitment on research centre.

Intel will also invest a significant part of its $1.05-billion investment on research centre.

(http://inhome.rediff.com)