Tech Shout!

Symantec Corp. has started a new research and development center in Pune, India. The new center which measures over five acres is situated precisely in Baner in Pune.

The first phase of the facility has the capacity for around 650 technical staff and engineers from Symantec’s Research and Development, IT and technical support teams in India. The second phase, due to be completed by the end of 2006, will then put up more than 1,500 employees with plans to expand further into the future.

John Thompson, Symantec chairman and chief executive officer said, “We have grown our presence here in India from four engineers 14 years ago to more than 1,700 today. As Symantec continues to grow, we expect our footprint in India to more than double over the next several years.”

“As a global company, Symantec seeks top technical talent on a worldwide basis in order to maintain and extend our technology and product leadership. Today, we are opening the first phase of our new India Center of Innovation, that will house highly skilled engineers, focused on building solutions to help individuals and enterprises assure the complete protection of their information, infrastructure and interactions,” continued Thompson.

Anil Chakravarthy, vice president, India Technical Operations said, “Symantec has a reputation for anticipating an evolving marketplace and the changing needs of customers.” Chakravarthy added, “We are dedicated to building a culture of innovation in our global R&D community and are extremely proud of the highly skilled teams of engineers we have here in Pune. We congratulate them on their continued drive and focus on developing new and innovative solutions that continually push the boundaries in software development.”

The Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec said it is was presently recruiting for more than 100 new positions in Pune across a range of categories including software engineering, development, Quality Assurance, IT and technical support.

Pune surely seems to be one of the busiest tech-city in India at present. A few days before Symantec’s announcement, Pune was graced by the honour of becoming India’s very first Wi-Fied city.