Yahoo chooses India for first non-US software centre

NEWS Yahoo has chosen India's Bangalore as the location for its first software development centre outside the US. The new facility will help hone features such as job searches, ecommerce and content searches for the web portal, Venkat Panchapakesan, CEO of Yahoo Software Development India, said in a Reuters report. The centre aims to employ 150 engineers by the end of next year, he added. Financial details of the investment were not disclosed. In recent years, US and European IT giants have increasingly looked to relocate parts of their operations to countries like India and China to lower costs. Most recently, Microsoft announced plans to shift its customer support work in Texas and North Carolina to India while Oracle also laid out ambitious plans to raise its Indian headcount to 4000 by 2004.