“Our partnership with IBM marks the coming together of two industry leaders who now provide higher value to end-users. It has always been our aim to be a step ahead of customer expectation and this alliance will further help us achieve this objective and consolidate our leadership position,” says Manoj Kohli, president, Bharti Airtel.

The only target now left for IBM is to have a say in the future of India’s technology. “We support open standards (geekspeak for all technologies that can integrate with each other),” says Annaswamy, “and we believe that open standards are the future for India and need to be adopted in the rest of the world. We firmly believe in open source and open standards when we work with governments.”

In August 2005, the company announced a new initiative that will help start-ups in its four high-growth economies develop solutions on open standards more quickly and easily. The company has now set up an Open Source Software Research Centre in Mumbai that spreads awareness about open standards, and is also working with the Government of India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and IIT (Mumbai).

IBM PRESENT IN INDIA SINCE 1992

* IBM India has seen double-digit growth over the last six years. Recorded revenue growth of 55% year on year and of 61% in Q1.

* IBM is working with over 200 ISVs and 2,500 business partners in India. Company is working with over 40% of India’s developers

* IBM has established over 25 centres in India.

... contd.