US-based HR software solutions provider SilkRoad Technologies is all set to make its debut in India this year with plans to put up a joint venture company based in the city.

The North Carolina headquartered SilkRoad Tech,which was set up in 2003, is already in talks with Hyderabad-based TMI group, an HR solutions provider, to set up the 50:50 JV by the year end. After having set up our presence in the Asia Pacific region in markets like Singapore,Hong Kong and Australia,we are now focusing on India,which we feel has more potential than China given the better education levels and English skills in India, said SilkRoad Technologies chairman and CEO Andrew J Filipowski told TOI here.

Indias economy being where it is we feel India is a better investment option than China because though infrastructure may be better in China,India scores in terms of better creation of engineering and mathematical manpower, Filipowski explained,adding that the investment for getting started in India could be around $2 million.

$30 million turnover SilkRoad already has a tie up with TMI groups software solutions company C&K Management to market its suite of products in India.

ilkRoad provides webbased HR technology tools for recruiting, on-boarding, performance management, learning management as well as corporate intranet. Peter Earnshaw, managing director (Asia), SilkRoad Technologies, said that apart from Hyderabad, the company was planning to have a presence in metro markets like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore as well and was primarily looking at targeting multinationals to begin with.

We are mainly looking at multinationals, both foreign and Indian,that have a huge employee base, to first pitch our suite of offerings to .We are also working on driving down costs of the offerings by at least 40% for the Indian markets, Earnshaw said,explaining how the Indian market was changing the rules of the game in the global marketplace thanks to its very competitive pricing.