Cook Launches Apple Development Centre In Hyderabad

IT giant and the world's most valuable company Apple launched its "Technology Development Centre" at Waverock IT Park in Hyderabad, as a delighted Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao asked the company to set up its own campus here soon and offered all necessary support to it for its future plans in India.

The event had Telangana IT Minister K T Rama Rao and Apple CEO Tim Cook among others in attendance.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said that it was a proud day for Hyderabad, and that he was happy that the Apple facility, which will work on Apple Maps, would offer job opportunities to some 4,000 persons.

KTR, the key person behind the scenes, said that it was a remarkable achievement for Hyderabad that it was becoming home to the largest technology development centre outside United States of America for Apple. Apple was the latest addition to the list of technology giants like Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Amazon that had development centres in Hyderabad, and invited Cook to open Apple's own campus in the city. He also proposed partnering with Apple in nurturing innovation-focused start-ups as the city already had large start-up incubation facilities like T-Hub, promoted under the Public Private Partnership model.

Cook said that India was an unparalleled country and that he liked the vibrancy of its people. He also said that he also loved the informal life and culture of the city, and its history.

The State government will provide land and other facilities to the Apple campus, as was done by previous governments in the case of Microsoft in the late nineties. Microsoft has its technology development centre spread across 56 acres in Hyderabad.

Sources said that Apple would have a key core team of 160 experts working in its upcoming development centre in Hyderabad, which would have a total of 4,000 to 5,000 people comprising software engineers and others by the end of 2016 or by January 2017.

Earlier, Cook had a one-on-one meeting with the Chief Minister.