MUMBAI, Jan 10: US software giant Oracle Corp. said on Tuesday that it would increase its workforce by almost 17 per cent by hiring 1,400 new staff.

Derek Williams, Executive Vice-President Oracle Asia Pacific and Japan, told a conference in Mumbai that the company, which currently has offices in six Indian cities, would increase its presence to nine more.

Mr Williams said that 15 per cent of its global workforce is based in India and that the country also had Oracle’s largest research and development centre outside the US.

The head of one of India’s largest bank, K.V. Kamath of ICICI Bank, also addressed the conference. He said that as late as 1999 many banks in India had not even introduced ATMs, assuming that their customers would not be too technology-savvy.

Giving figures for his own bank he said that in 1999 a mere two per cent of all transactions were Internet based but by 2004 the number had risen to 15pc. Also, for the same period, the share taken by ATM transactions had risen from 10pc to 40 per cent.