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Vishwanath Kulkarni

``We expect a major growth in our India operations over the next few years, not only in terms of manpower but also in terms of increased role,'' Mr James P. Dagg, said.

BANGALORE, May 23

ALTAIR Engineering, the US-based product design consulting and technology company, is planning to expand and strengthen its software development facility in India.

The company plans to invest $3 million over the next few years in the Indian subsidiary, said Mr James P. Dagg, Vice-President, global software development, Altair Engg. The Bangalore-based software development facility of Altair contributes to the core product development of Altair HyperWorks software suite. The company has already invested about half-a-million dollars since September 2001, he said.

``We expect a major growth in our India operations over the next few years, not only in terms of manpower but also in terms of increased role in product development,'' Mr Dagg said. The India software development facility is responsible for specifications, design, development, and testing of software.

The development team of about 10 professionals is expected to be scaled up to 50 in the next few years.

``We are also looking at hiring staff on contractual basis, mainly for short-term requirements from various companies. We are initially looking at some 50-100 contractual professionals,'' he said. Altair is also exploring the possibility of outsourcing development work to Indian companies. India is also emerging as a big market for Altair's computer aided engineering (CAE) software products as many a big software firms are diversifying into the engineering services space. ``We feel India could emerge as the biggest market for Altair in the region, as the engineering services space is witnessing a boom. Even small engineering firms are also getting into the services space,'' said Mr Nelson Dias, Managing Director, Altair Engineering's India operations.

The company clientele in India consists of software majors like Infosys, Satyam apart from aerospace agencies such as ADA, National Aeronautics Ltd, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd among others. Tier I suppliers and OEMs in the automotive space in the country are also our customers, he said.

``We are looking at a growth of 40-50 per cent in the Indian market, where we command a market share of around 20 per cent,'' said Mr Dias.

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