First Indian Corp opens Hyd centre

The First Indian Corporation Private Limited, the Indian arm of the $6.72-billion First American Corporation, has announced the launch of its software development centre in Hyderabad.

The company which has offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad, is also looking at having a third office in the country.

The First American Corporation is a leading provider of business information and its Indian arm specialises in software development, business process outsourcing (BPO) and ITES segment for real estate, credit and title insurance industry.

Addressing a press conference, Peter W Gorrie, director of First Indian Corporation Private Limited, said, "The software development division of the parent company works on 15 different software languages and seven different software functions but the centre in Hyderabad would concentrate on main frame software development."

The company at present has 16 people in the software division in the city and plans to scale it up during the year. "The expansion of the Hyderabad centre is part of our strategy to be present in multiple locations," Gorrie added.

He also said that apart from increasing the size of the operations in Bangalore, the company is also evaluating the possibility of having an office in Mysore, Chennai or Mangalore.

First Indian Corporation is looking at increasing its headcount from the present 1,500 to around 4,200 employees in the next 18 to 24 months.

According to him, the company has so far invested $45 million in its Indian operations in the last decade. "However, most of these investments were made in the last two years," Gorrie added.

First Indian Corporation is also exploring the opportunities with various governmental and private sector groups to introduce products such as title insurance and credit reporting into the business infrastructure within the country.