Speaking to press persons, Mr Srini Koppolu, managing director of the India Development Centre in Hyderabad said that the investment will be utilised for developing the infrastructure, product development and related activities.

Microsoft is also working on new products and also a product for Dot Net platform. A new version of Windows Services for Unix (SFU) is likely to take shape in the second-half of 2001, he said.

Talking about the services for Unix, Amit Chatterjee, product unit manager, said Microsoft is working on the inter operability thus making it easy for enterprises to integrate Windows in existing Unix environments. He stressed for an easy mechanism for moving Unix-based legacy applications and scripts to Windows platform.

Elaborating on the products released from Microsoft's stable's SFU 1.0, launched during February 1999 and SFU 2.0, launched in April 2000, he said these products were done completely in India. With its state-of-the-art infrastructure for design, development and testing facilities, Microsoft is working on next versions of SFU, he said.

The development centre at the Hi-Tec city in Hyderabad is on an area of 50,000 sq.ft with a 2 MB dedicated link back to Redmond. The centre has remote access service, dedicated training room, table tennis, pool table, Gym and showers, Carroms, Chess, library and a lounge.