As part of the uncrystallized plans, Xerox ModiCorp, the joint venture between Xerox Corporation and BK Modi Group, could spin off its existing software services division into a separate company called ContentGuard India, said ContentGuard, president and COO, Ranjit Singh in an exclusive interview with The Financial Express.

These operations existed as a separate entity called Modi Xerox Software Services till last year when it was decided to rename the company as Xerox ModiCorp. Two other Xerox companies in India, the flagship Modi Xerox Ltd and Modi Xerox Financial Services, were later amalgamated with it.

Xerox Delhi software center has over 100 engineers already and Xerox ModiCorp has been planning to increase the manpower. The center does localised software development for advanced printing systems under guidance from Xerox USA.

It may now be spun off in part or full as ContentGuard India. However, the exact business structure was still being worked out, according to Singh. In the past, ContentGuard has also sourced software from a few Indian companies like Wipro and others through contracts.

``A large part of our work is presently sub-contracted in India. Hence, we are keen to have a large development center of our own in the country soon. So we will double the number of people in India within a year,'' said Singh.Later, ContentGuard India will also go for an initial public offering if the market conditions are right. ``We are looking at timely delivery of projects, a very productive software development team and good margins. If we succeed in this agenda, then an IPO becomes a natural consequence of success,'' he added.

Before coming onboard Xerox, Singh had set up two start-ups in USA which successfully went for IPOs. ``Time is your biggest enemy in the Internet space. We want operations which are up 24/7 round the year and India fits fine in the scheme of things. In fact, we got a whole project done out of India within 20 days during the Christmas time which got us tremendous credibility with the customer,'' said Singh.

ContentGuard is a Xerox spun-off with investment by Microsoft which will provide digital rights management solutions for the Internet.