India centre of telecom, networking R&D in Asia Pacific: Zinnov

NEW DELHI: India, one of the IT services hubs globally, is the only country in Asia Pacific region that have research and development centres of all major telecom and networking companies, a report by market research firm Zinnov has said.

"R&D globalisation through offshore centres has grown steadily over the last five years in India," Zinnov's Global Service Provider Ratings-2013 report said.

Around 225 multi national corporations (MNCs) R&D centres were set-up within the software vertical in the last five years in India, it added.

"Bangalore - India is the only location in APAC which has R&D centres for all major telecom and networking companies," the report said.

About 40 per cent of the R&D centres setup by computer infrastructure companies in APAC region is located in India, it added.

The country had 1,031 R&D centres at the end of 2012 compared to 806 at the end of 2007, Zinnov's report said.

Globally, spending on R&D by top 500 companies stood at USD 568 billion in Fiscal 2013, it added.

R&D spending in the automotive sector led the race with USD 109 billion followed by Software & Internet (USD 52 billion), Electrical & Electronics (USD 49 billion), Semiconductors and Telecom & networking (USD 45 billion each), Zinnov said.

"16 of the top 100 R&D spenders are from the automotive industry. APAC region has the largest number of automotive R&D centres with China having 55 per cent share of these centres," the report said.

North America is re-emerging as the preferred destination for Out-Sourced Software Product Development, especially the Tier-II locations in the US are becoming viable alternatives, it added.

"In the EMEA region, Israel is the leading R&D location and it is home to centres of all the top spenders in the Hi-Tech space and Asia is dominated by India (India for Global model) and China (China for China model)," Zinnov's report said.