Pune is emerging as a tough contender to Bangalore and Gurgaon on the Indian and international IT maps. Theres a silent, but steady undercurrent beneath the huge tide of IT expansions at Pune. Hot and heavy-duty R&D at globally cutting-edge centers of some IT behemoths is happening right here.

Pune is turning out to be the Petri-dish of some top-guns from the industry as they flock here in droves and set up shop with swanky R&D centers. The city is the largest R&D center for Synygy. Ditto for Sybase. For Symantec too, Pune stands as its largest R&D center and houses the bulk of the R&D pool across the globe.

Pune is also the largest R&D center for Geometric, which houses over 1,000 engineers working in the city. Besides its own center, there is a 70% (Geometric) and 30% (Dassault) JV with Dassault Systemes, based in Pune, which works as an R&D center to develop various products for Dassault Systemes. The companys R&D is driven out of Pune, with IPs for desktop and enterprise products developed in this center.

For Avaya Global Services, Pune is slated to host the largest Avaya R&D team in the near future, says Vivek Tulijapurkar, MD, Development Center. He had added that Pune as a development center is contributing not only to support existing products and new features, but also to incubate new products. We are on track to become the largest R&D center for Avaya.

All the above examples are just the tip of the iceberg

What Makes it Click
What exactly makes this erstwhile sleepy-comfy city the junction of all this torrid action in development today? Anil Chakravarthy, vice president, India Technical Operations, Symantec describes Punes lure like this: The early days made Pune attractive because of academic connections, proximity to Mumbai and flight connectivity, and lower operating expenses and cost. It was much easier to operate from here. As we moved ahead from 1994 to today, Pune has grown with us. But the beauty is that what used to be true thenlike ready talent pool, culture, overall milieuis true today as well. Plus, we have the best people from all over India ready and keen to work here. As Synygys MD, Chetan Shah outlines, People like the city and that makes it good to tap talent.

Pune has had the reputation of being one of the largest industrial hubs in Asia and has fostered industrial R&D (applied research) for several years now. With forty national level R&D labs of global repute and infrastructure supporting the environment, Pune attracts scientists and technology experts. Hence, it is an ideal location for Geometric, which is a research-intensive organization, describes Rajaramana Macha, VP, Global Operations, Geometric.

We are on track to become the largest R&D center for Avaya Vivek Tulijapurkar, MD, Development Center, Avaya Global Services

Pune has a very strong education and R&D infrastructure. There are eight universities producing 9,000 engineering across various world-class colleges and polytechnics in and around the city which contribute to the required talent pool, points out Macha.

R&D Hotbed
Though companies are tight-lipped about giving away country wise investment numbers for R&D, a quick peek at the R&D pipeline of IT majors here proves that Pune is hot and bubbling.

For Sybase, the R&D center in Pune, with competencies in data management and access space, has been touted as one of the largest R&D centers outside of the US. Sales performance management company Synygy is using Pune for a spectrum of work that not only includes development, testing, implementation, but also design, release, etc.

Pune is tagged as an enormously significant R&D center says Symantecs Chakravarthy. All important areas like critical component, architecture, design, technical support, lab certification, and release engineering are being built in Pune. The city is a fertile ground for centers dedicated to R&D.

Similarly, at the OPD biggie Persistent, high-voltage work on life science, data analytics, virtual observatory and collaborative work with NIV (in Life Sciences) and MIT is underway in the city. What makes Pune even more interesting is the flavor of work happening here. Its not the run-of-the-mill fag end projects, but core, high-keydevelopment that makes Punes centers remarkable.

We have the best people from all over India ready and keen to work in Pune Anil Chakravarthy, VP, India Technical Operations, Symantec

Party-Poopers
Punes sheen as a major development hub is not immune to scratches like infrastructure woes and attrition. With the growth that has come about, government support and infrastructure need to play a lot of catch-up. Infrastructure woes continue to be the recurrent gripe across all R&D biggies. We use a lot of lab space here and that needs lot of power for heating and cooling. That needs to be supported with a lot of investments in-house, rues Chakravarthy from Symantec.

In the words of Sybase Padhye, While there are awe-inspiring IT parks and outfits here, these turn to be islands of good infrastructure. The smoothness and benefits that they provide should spread all across.

Then there are concerns over talent retention and conduciveness that haunt Pune. Since most people employed here are from other towns, theres always the question of how long they are going to stay here. Also, for a product company like ours, Pune is not a hard belt of product companies, says Shah.

But he discounts threats from competition springing up from other research niches like Hyderabad. Hyderabad is good at biotech while Chennai is higher on BPO related work. The only competition point to Pune for R&D is at Bangalore.

Great Days Ahead
Companies like Sybase, Synygy, and Symantec are gung-ho about sourcing more and more work from Pune in future. Chakravarthy, while refraining from any comparisons to the newly launched Chennai center, rates Pune at par with International counterparts. Be it productivity, value creation or IP contribution, Pune has scored excellently on all metrics.

Synygys Shah shares the same optimism, We will continue to invest in Pune, in R&D and will shift more and more functions here. Pune has been the auto hub for years and the potential of becoming one for R&D is not far away. Pune, as he sums up, will continue to be the intellectual capital city.

Pratima Harigunani
maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in

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