Reuters sets up base in Bangalore

Reuters to make B'lore biggest employment hub
The Economic Times/Reuters

Reuters, the global news and information provider, on Thursday announced that it plans to make Bangalore its biggest information-gathering hub, employing up to 1,500 people, or 10% of its total workforce.

Terming what Reuters is doing as “revolutionary”, Mr David Schlesinger, global managing editor and head of editorial operations for Reuters said, “This is a revolutionary way of providing information to our customers.

In a sense, nothing has changed, since we’ve always been global. But now, we are separating the parts that need to be done on the spot such as interviews, from those parts that can be done in remote locations, such as data collation, compilation of diaries, background research, etc.”

Staff will be mostly data and technical employees, Reuters executives said. “What we are creating here is the largest single hub of information gathering” within Reuters, said Mr Geert Linnebank, the company’s editor-in-chief and head of content operations.

Reuters, which competes with Bloomberg, Thomson Financial and others in delivering news and data to financial clients, has already hired 340 employees to compile and analyse data and expects to have 400 by the end of this year, he said.

The Bangalore office would employ 1,000 by the end of 2005 and between 1,200 and 1,500 over the next year and a half, Mr Linnebank said. Reuters employs 14,700 people worldwide.

Bangalore will become the biggest of four global data centres, with about 750 staff, or 50% of its expanded data-gathering group, to be located here by the end of 2005, said Mr Justin Abel, the company’s head of data operations.

Reuters also plans to have up to 40 journalists in its Bangalore newsroom, a number that could increase over time, said Mr Schlesinger.

Earlier, addressing a gathering of high-profile folks from the IT industry, Mr Kiran Karnik, president Nasscom said, “What Reuters is doing here is of extreme significance for the growth of this industry in India. It is reflective not only of competitive costs but also of the depth and breadth of talent available here.”

Declining to give an exact figure, Mr Linnebank said Reuters had invested millions of pounds in the Bangalore facility.

Mr Justin Abel, global head of content creation and service said the India operations would run at about 40% the cost of similar operations in New York or London.