India's right on top in Intel's global gameplan

Economic Times
Even though its India operations felt the tremors of its biggest global restructuring exercise earlier this year, the country remains top priority in Intel’s global strategy. Indian talent ranks among the best in the world, and growing its research capabilities here is, therefore, high on the agenda of the company, says Craig Barett, chairman of the board, Intel Corporation. Speaking exclusively to Corporate Dossier on the eve of his current visit, Mr Barrett hailed the capabilities of Indian engineers in contributing to technology development and innovation within Intel. “The design and engineering teams that we’ve been working with in India have been very prolific and high quality.” With rapidly-evolving technology and once-distant competitors like AMD closing in fast, emerging economies like India hold the key to growth. The Intel India Development Centre (IIDC) in Bangalore is its largest non-manufacturing facility outside the US, with nearly 3,000 researchers working on cutting-edge technologies, and Barrett indicates the company intends to grow that number over time. more...

Long-term visas for foreign CEOs likely

Economic Times
Decks have been cleared for granting long-term visas to professionals and visa-on-arrival to tourists. While foreign CEOs and business travellers from 18 countries may avail of the multiple-entry visa with five-to-10-year validity, tourists from these nations may be able to enjoy visa-on-arrival facilities at major Indian airports. The home ministry has finally agreed to the tourism ministry’s proposal for relaxing visa norms. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) has already given in-principle support to the proposal. It is learnt that the issue of visa-on-arrival came up at a recent review meeting of tourism infrastructure, chaired by the prime minister. While the home ministry has agreed to consider implementation of the visa-on-arrival scheme, it has said the scheme could not be extended to all categories of travellers and countries due to security reasons. Earlier, the ministry was against the very idea of visa on arrival. more...