Fast Facts
•  Set up India operations in 1990
•  Currently employs over 4000 people across India
•  Has six business units in India primarily - Microsoft Corporation India (Pvt) Ltd, the marketing division, Marketing Subsidiary, Microsoft India Development Center, Microsoft Global Technical Support Centre, Microsoft Global Development Center India, Microsoft Global Services India & Microsoft Research India
•  Under its mission of ‘Realizing India's Potential' Microsoft has targeted all its strategic initiatives towards inclusive growth, be it the focus is on education and skills development, e governance, igniting the rural ecosystem, enhancing the competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing industry or building a vibrant local software economy

India is undoubtedly the IT leader in Asia today and as a worldwide leader in the IT domain Microsoft was early in recognizing the potential of IT as a driver of economic growth in India. Consequently, since Microsoft's entry into the Indian market in 1990, the company has worked closely with the Indian government, IT industry, academia and local developer community for ushering in some of the early successes in the realm of IT.

‘Realising India's Potential'
As India moves towards a leadership position in the global knowledge economy, Microsoft continues to work in close partnership with all stakeholders, including the government at the state and national level, the Indian IT industry and academia, to ensure that technology is leveraged as a catalyst for enabling more and more individuals and communities to realize their full potential. The following initiatives define Microsoft's vision of ‘Inclusive growth':

Creating a digitally inclusive society in India – This implies a thrust on long-term investments for taking the benefits of IT to the grass root and reaching out to communities in rural and semi-urban India which are marginalized and are on the wrong side of the ‘Digital Divide'. Accelerating IT literacy, creating locally relevant content in Indian languages and ensuring affordable access to technology are the key levers for achieving this mission. Some key Microsoft programs here include:

•  Project Shiksha for accelerating IT literacy - Started in 2002, the project has so far impacted over 100,000 school teachers and 5 million students in government schools across the country. It will now be extended to 600 districts across the country in the next phase.
•  Project Bhasha for promoting local language computing – Commitment to provide local language interface packs for Microsoft Windows & Office in 14 Indian languages and building a vibrant local language community
•  Project Jyoti for enabling access to technology in rural India – Setting up Community Technology Learning Centres in rural areas in partnership with NGOs
•  Project Saksham for taking the benefits of IT to rural India – A scalable and self sustaining kiosk model initiative which imbibes the principles of public-private partnership to create a strong rural IT ecosystem. It seeks to not only provide local entrepreneurs with the opportunity to set up and manage these kiosks for content and services.
•  Recently Microsoft launched Project Vikas in association with National Manufacturing Competitive Council (NMCC) to enhance the global competitiveness of India's Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) sector. Started in December 2005 with an investment of USD 15 million over a period of five years Project Vikas would be implemented through a multi-pronged strategy, encompassing skill and capacity building, knowledge creation and dissemination, and enablement of linkages in the cluster ecosystem. The project signifies a long term commitment by Microsoft India to help the Indian SME sector address its ‘soft' challenges and gear up to effectively face global competition.

Building a vibrant local software economy - In India, Microsoft is engaging with close to 4,000 partners for offering technology based solutions to its customers. Microsoft has and continues to make significant investments in skills transfer and joint go-to-market initiatives with this community, particularly the tier 2 ISVs, to enable them to tap domestic and global opportunities while delivering increased business value to its customers. Microsoft is also committed to help the Indian ISV community realize the opportunity in the software products space. The attempt is to change India from renting IQ to owning IP (intellectual property).

Microsoft works closely with over 650,000 developers in India with the aim of empowering them with the tools, technologies and training required to develop high end skills and compete in a global marketplace. Microsoft's scope of work with the Indian technical community is spread across: Academic community which includes the IITs, RECs, and other educational institutions, System Integrator and ISV community, software professionals (developers, IT professionals and software architects) who work independently or with an enterprise in India or overseas.

Further all of our initiatives aimed at inclusive growth not only affordable access to computing and increase efficiency and competitiveness, but will also boost the growth of local software ecosystem.

Innovating in India and Innovating for India under the aegis of One Microsoft in India - India is the only subsidiary outside of the US where Microsoft has an end-to-end presence through six business units. The combined entities presence is being leverage to not just address the unique needs of India as a market but also to keep growing the momentum of India's growth in the Knowledge economy.

1. Microsoft Research India (MSR India), Bangalore: Established in January 2005, MSR India focuses on developing technology for emerging markets, multilingual systems, sensor networks and Geographical Information Systems. Researchers collaborate with leading academic, government, and industry researchers to advance the application of state of the art technologies in the identified areas.
2. Microsoft India Development Center (MIDC), Hyderabad: Located in Hyderabad, MIDC plays a critical role in Microsoft's global product development initiatives and future product innovations. Currently working on more than 35 different products and technologies, some of the key development initiatives from MIDC include Data Protection Manager, RFID Platform Technologies, Office Mobile, Windows SFU, Features of Longhorn, Visual Studio, Office Live Meeting and Microsoft-CRM.
3. Global Development Center India (GDCI), Hyderabad: The Centre develops mission critical enterprise applications that support Microsoft businesses worldwide. The GDCI vision is to work on the next technologies based on pre-ready to manufacture (RTM) Microsoft products and technologies like VB.NET; C#.NET; ASP.NET; SQL Server; Yukon; XML web services; SOAP; and BizTalk Server to create develop applications. The focus also includes continuous process improvements using six sigma and TSP/PSP.
4. Microsoft Global Services India (MGSI), Hyderabad: The centre is involved in the architecture and design of large, complex and challenging engagements or solutions based on cutting-edge Microsoft technologies. MGSI has some of the best and the brightest minds in information technology industry who serve the needs of global clients worldwide for their technology consulting and leading solution development and deployment. In addition, MGSI is tasked to drive the delivery engine for competitive migration activities.
5. Microsoft India Corporation (Pvt) Ltd: This marketing subsidiary commenced its operations in India in 1990. Today the company has 7 offices spread across Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune and Chennai, engaged in consulting and marketing of Microsoft products.
6. Global Technical Support Center (GTSC), Bangalore: Established in October 2003, the Microsoft GTSC in Bangalore focuses on providing high level technical resolution services to English speaking customers and partners across the globe. Part of the Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) organization it supports over 170 Microsoft products.

Microsoft Products
Microsoft provides software for different user groups - Consumer, Enterprises and Developers. These products fall into the following broad categories:

•  Windows Client , including the Microsoft® Windows® XP desktop operating system, Windows 2000, and Windows Embedded operating system.
•  Information Worker , including Microsoft Office, Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft Visio®, Microsoft Project, and other stand-alone desktop applications.
•  Business Solutions , encompassing Great Plains and Navision business process applications, and bCentral™ business services.
•  Server Platforms , including the Microsoft Windows Server System™ integrated server software, software developer tools, and MSDN®.
•  Windows CE & Mobility , featuring mobile devices including the Windows Powered Pocket PC, the Mobile Explorer micro browser, and the Windows Powered Smartphone software platform.
•  MSN , including the MSN® network, MSN Internet Access, MSNTV, MSN Hotmail® and other Web-based services.
•  Entertainment & Devices Division , including Microsoft Xbox®, consumer hardware and software, online games, and the Microsoft TV platform.