The Test-tube City Beckons

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



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