Japanese electronics maker, NEC, is setting up a software joint venture in India with HCL Technologies, an Indian software services company.

The joint venture would start by developing system and embedded software in the areas of next generation wireless, cyber security, grid computing and supercomputing, senior vice-president at HCL Technologies, Amitava Roy, said.

"The technologies developed at the joint venture will go into NEC's next generation products," he said.

The joint venture will service the software development requirements of NEC and its subsidiaries, and their clients both in Japan and abroad, according to Roy.

NEC and subsidiary NEC System Technologies will hold a 51 per cent stake in the joint venture. HCL will hold the remaining 49 per cent and will provide the joint venture's chief executive officer, chief technology officer and key technical people.

HCL Technologies already does work for NEC in the areas of systems integration, enterprise applications, embedded software and application specific integrated circuits.

The joint venture would now handle this work, Roy said.

It would combine NEC's hardware capabilities and HCL's software capabilities, he said. Advancing NEC's and HCL's relationship required a joint venture, as it gave NEC greater confidence to invest in Indian development.

Several multinational technology companies have established wholly owned research and development operations in India to take advantage of the country's large, low-cost pool of IT manpower. Others, such as NEC, have taken the joint venture route with local partners that understand the local situation better, have development expertise and are better equipped to handle staffing and managing the operation.