When announced, this will be the single biggest IT investment coming into the city so far. TCS recently announced an investment of Rs 500 crore for Pune.
"This is only the beginning. We are hard selling Maharashtra to every possible MNC," Kumar said on Wednesday. He said the Microsoft investment would be announced soon and that it would be outside the Hinjewadi IT Park.
Kumar said the state is also in discussions with other multinational IT companies like Hewlett Packard and IBM to bring in their future investments into the state.
Senior state government officials recently met a delegation from IBM and laid out the red carpet to them, he said. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting organised by CSI in Pune, Kumar said: "It's time we got out of the office and sold the state to these big IT investors."
"In fact, the state has thrown open its gates and is wooing investors in the sector, trying to offer them whatever they ask for," he said.
Later, at a meeting organised by MCCIA, Kumar said Intel and Advanced Micro Devices were also on the state's list of invitees.
According to him, these hardware majors will also be given the same fiscal benefits as the software ones. Kumar said a proposal to see if free land could be granted to investors in tier II and III cities, if not Mumbai and Pune, was being considered.
The cities being promoted are Nashik, Aurangabad, Nagpur and Amravati.
India Ofices: http://www.microsoft.com/india/address.aspx
-- From TOI
