Yahoo Inc. plans 2nd R&D unit in India

Yahoo! Inc., a computer services firm, expects to set up a second research and development centre in India, and the cities the Santa Clara-based company is considering include Hyderabad, Prasad Ram, chief technology officer of Yahoo! R&D India, said.

Speaking to this newspaper, Dr Ram said Yahoo!, which currently has a research centre in Bangalore, was mulling a second centre in India. "Currently, we have 700 employees at our Bangalore centre, but we are moving to a newer space which can accomodate up to 1,700 people. We expect to eventually set up a second centre in India, though we have not yet reached a stage where we can decide on the place it will be located in. It could be Bangalore, too," he said.

Dr Ram said the Bangalore centre was involved in product engineering for Yahoo! worldwide. "There is a whole lot of technology that goes behind Yahoo! to make the site user-friendly and fast," he said.

According to him, Yahoo! would now be focusing on the Indian market, and will be rolling out a "lot of goodies" for Indian users. "We have been developing the technology in Bangalore which is used around the world, but India as a market is now on the company’s radar. We believe that with an expanding economy, there is a market for Yahoo!’s services."