Motorola will shift its existing software unit to the new facility in the first phase of expansion to be completed by 2003. The entire expansion programme will be completed by 2005. The firm expects revenues of about 1.50 billion rupees ($32 million) in calendar 2001 against estimated revenues of about 1.05 billion rupees this year, Sammy Sana, Motorola India's managing director told a news conference in Bangalore. Bangalore is home to dozens of global and Indian technology firms and is regarded as the country's technology capital. But the state has been facing stiff competition in wooing investors from other Indian states. Motorola plans to expand its staff strength in India to about 1,800 to 2,000 by 2003 from 1,300 currently. The money invested in the new facility will take the company's total investments in India to about $100 million since 1991, Mohan Kumar, Motorola's managing director, Asia-Pacific, Global Software and Solutions group, told Reuters. Motorola India Electronics was set up in Bangalore in1991 as a 100 percent export oriented unit for computer software.

It has two software development centres in Bangalore and one in the neighbouring city of Hyderabad.

The Indian unit also has two design centres in the northern states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

(Reuters)