"India is our key R&D destination"

David Goulden, Executive Vice President and CFO of EMC, a $11.1-billion (Rs 44,400 crore) information management company, spoke to BT’s Rahul Sachitanand on the company’s evolution and plans for India. Excerpts:

Please talk us through your Indian operations.

Two years ago, we announced a $500-million (Rs 2,250 crore then) investment in India by 2010, and since then, we’ve crossed a few milestones. The number of customers in India has doubled and our new India Center of Excellence has filed 10 patents since it started operations two years ago.

How important is India and the other developing markets to your growth?

Everyone talks about BRICs today, but to us, they are four distinct markets, each with its own unique characteristics. India is by far the most important R&D destination. We are doing much more high-end R&D work from here and we’re not using India as a QA (quality assurance) or software support base.

Are you worried by a possible slowdown in IT spending?

I think 2007 saw growth over 2006 in every single aspect. If there is any worry, it is about the US and enterprise spending on the back of the financial mess, especially the subprime crisis. However, other areas outside of this segment in small businesses and other geographies such as Europe or Asia Pacific and Japan continue to be strong.