Microsoft will pump $1.7bn into India over the next four years, in the process creating 3,000 new jobs. Most of the cash will, according to Bill Gates, go towards improving the software giant's research and development capabilities.

Gates told a forum of Indian business leaders in New Delhi: "This amount is to be deployed across select focus areas over the next four years in line with Microsoft's strategic vision for India," adding: "We have 4,000 professionals in India today, we will increase it to 7,000 over the next three to four years."

Indian Information Technology Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, enthused that the investment was "an indicator of the value that Microsoft attaches to its development and R&D activities in the country".

MS already has a research centre in Hyderabad and has plans to open an "innovation centre" in Bangalore in the new year. ®