Black & Decker U.S Inc., (B&D) has entered into an agreement with Satyam Computer Services under which the latter will set up an India Design Centre (IDC) for B&D at Hyderabad.

As part of the agreement, Satyam Computers will provide CAD/CAM/CAE related services, including conversion of legacy data into CATIA format. It will also be the nodal agency for gathering all design data from B&D suppliers worldwide and convert them to CATIA format standardized by B&D.

Bay Networks, one of the leading provider of inter-networking solutions, will set up a software development centre in India, the first such unit in Asia. This will be the company's third software development centre, the others being in Israel and Ireland.

The centre being set up by the $2 billion computer networking products major will be a 100% export - oriented unit. The unit will develop sophisticated software that will be exclusively used in the networking products manufactured by the company in the United States. Initially, the company will invest over $1 million in the new unit.

Informix, the $939-million database and data warehousing company of US, is drawing up plans to set up a fully-owned marketing subsidiary in India. The company may invest $25 million in the country in the next three years and is also looking at the data warehousing and the web markets in India.

Tata Elxsi, Bangalore, and the $80 billion Hitachi Ltd, Tokyo, have signed an agreement to establish a dedicated centre in Tata Elxsi for the development of engineering software, specific to the needs of all divisions of Hitachi.

A high power delegation from Hitachi selected Tata Elxsi after evaluating a number of Indian companies. On a project basis, Hitachi offered more than a dozen different projects to Tata Elxsi last year. The successful completion of all these projects culminated in Hitachi's decision to sign up with Tata Elxsi in its first ever venture of this kind. The development centre is to be located in an exclusive facility in Bangalore with controlled access.

An ISO 9002 company, Tata Elxsi provides system solutions in the domestic market for CAD/CAM, visual simulation, entertainment, education and research, and high-end networking solutions.

Intel Corporation, the $20.8 billion infotech giant, will set up a 100% subsidiary in India shortly. An application has been filed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and the necessary clearances are expected soon.

Intel is not interested in a local joint venture, since most of its operations worldwide are carried through wholly-owned subsidiaries and not through joint ventures. The scale and the extent of Intel's operations in India makes it necessary to set up a 100% subsidiary in the country.