Microsoft Hyderabad Campus Gets the Garage

Microsoft has opened the Garage in Hyderabad. The Garage India is a platform offered to the employees of Microsoft, where they can experiment, innovate, and gather ideas in order to add value to existing products. The facility was opened on March 26 and was inaugurated by the Telangana IT minister, K. T. Rama Rao.

Microsoft News Center India quoted K. T. Rama Rao, “Telangana is fast evolving as the hotbed for innovation, we are really glad that Microsoft has chosen Hyderabad as the location for The Garage in India. Along with our recently announced collaborative platform TWorks and platforms like Microsoft Garage, Hyderabad will transform into a hub for prototype development and ideation, making the city a crucial center in India’s drive towards the industrial revolution 4.0. We hope to see some amazing design technologies and prototypes being developed in collaboration between these platforms, right here in our state.”

Microsoft Ventures to Return to India, on the Lookout for AI, blockchain and Self-Driving Car Startups

The facility is spread over 8,000 square feet, and is equipped with state-of-the-art features to take advantage of for all employees of Microsoft across teams and projects. It comprises three dedicated lab sections. The first one is a Hub for hackathons and workshops. Second is a Makerspace and an Advanced Makerspace equipped with electronic Workbench, 3D Printers, Laser Cutter, and PCB milling machine for creating prototypes. The third is a Reality Room dedicated to working in the space of Augmented Reality (AR) Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality applications and dedicated space and equipment for doing work on Deep Learning.

Projects that recently succeeded while starting from Microsoft Garage include Seeing AI, an app for visually impaired people, SMS Organizer, an app created for organizing an SMS inbox into categories, Favorite Lock Screen, an app that makes suggestions about a user’s favorites and interests, and Kaizala, a mobile app for service group communications and work management.

“The Garage enables employees to bring to life innovative ideas and solutions. The Garage program in India will be a connector to bring together people across roles, skills, and experience to lend their passion to create solutions unique to this market.” Microsoft News Center India quoted Anil Bhansali, Corporate Vice President, Cloud & Enterprise, Managing Director, Microsoft India (R&D) Private Limited.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft came to India in 1990. The tech giant employs over 8,000 people, in sales and marketing, research and development, and customer services and support. Microsoft’s presence is in almost a dozen Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, NCR, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune.