SAP to Triple Employees At Indian Research Hub

German business software solutions giant SAP announced Tuesday that it plans to triple the number of employees in India by 2006. The company said that SAP Labs India in Bangalore, the largest research development center outside Germany, will see its software development workforce increase to 3,000 from the current 1,100 within the next two and a half years. The software giant is also investing €20 million ($24.9 million) in the research hub. Until now SAP had planned to create 800 new jobs in Bangalore, southern India by mid 2005. The company revealed earlier this year that it would increasingly relocate research and development activities as well as administrative jobs to low-wage countries in order to save labor costs. SAP employs around 31,000 workers worldwide and plans to create 1,150 more jobs by the end of the year.