In 1997-98 Indian software exports earned some US$ 1.75 billion, up by about 68% as compared to the previous year. Bangalore in Karnataka, dubbed India’s Silicon valley, currently accounts for at least a third of all India’s exported software and services. 
India’s pool of highly skilled (and relatively inexpensive ) labour has attracted multinationals. These include Computer Vision( which does 80% of its research and development in Pune), Novel (Bangalore) Baan (Hyderabd), Boeing (Hyderabad), British Aerospace (Banglaore), Adobe (Delhi) and British Telecom (Pune). Other global giants, investing in research and development schools in India, include IBM and Silicon Graphics. In 1998 Microsoft announced it was setting up its first development centre outside the US, at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. But the information superhighway within India is still relatively limited. There are only some 100,000 Internet connections. The government has sanctioned a budget of US$ 300 million to set up a high speed national telecom back bone.