Microsoft sets up The Garage at Hyderabad

Bengaluru will get the second Garage later this year

Microsoft India, on Monday, inaugurated the first 'Garage' in India at Hyderabad to provide its employees with a platform to work on products and solutions based on new-age technologies like IoT, robotics, and quantum computing.

The Garage, spread over 8,000 sq ft facility at the Microsoft India Development Centre, is the second such unit globally for Microsoft after the one at its headquarters in Redmond, US.

Commenting on the development, Microsoft  India  (R&D) Private Limited Corporate Vice President, Cloud and Enterprise, Managing Director Anil Bhansali said the Garage enables employees to bring to life innovative ideas and solutions.

"The Garage programme 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," he said.

The Garage programme has been in India since 2014 but a dedicated space has been provided now.

Microsoft Garage  Partner Director Jeff Ramos said Microsoft believes in enabling its employees to utilise their knowledge, capabilities and innovative acumen to build solutions for the rapidly changing technology landscape.

"The  Microsoft  Garage serves as a hub to engage our workforce, with facilities and programs optimised for hacking, ideation, and collaboration.  Microsoft  Garage's engagement with the innovation ecosystems in our GDC locations helps create the right kind of partnerships to accelerate experimentation and innovation in the local context," he said.

The facility has three dedicated lab sections including a hub for hackathons and workshops, a makerspace and an advanced makerspace.

The advanced makerspace has an electronic workbench, 3D printers, laser cutter, PCB milling machine for creating prototypes, reality room dedicated to working in the space of AR, VR and Mixed Reality applications and dedicated space and equipment for doing work on deep learning.

The first Garage was set up in 2009 at the company's headquarters. Microsoft has since then set up such units at Vancouver, Silicon Valley, Israel and Beijing, among others.

Ramos said the company will set up another Garage in Bengaluru later this year but declined to divulge more details.