The Lab will be focused on both testing interoperability between products from different vendors, and also looking at issues of interoperability between different versions of products from the same vendor.

You can read the article here;

Microsoft has set up a lab in Bangalore where industry, government, and educational institutions can build [and] test applications for their interoperability with open-source and other technologies.

The company also announced Thursday an Open Source Technology Program with four Indian academic institutions. The program will encourage student projects across diverse areas including interoperability between Windows and Linux platforms, said Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of Microsoft India. Venkatesan spoke at an Interoperability Enclave in Bangalore, which representatives of government, academia, and industry attended.

The article is worth a quick read, it also talks briefly about a program that the subsidiary in India have established to support new Independent Software Vendors, and an Innovation Center that has been opened in Pune. (Western India)

Users of the Live Mail service in India can now choose from hundreds of domain names for their email address, and then opt to receive all mail to a single mailbox for all the addresses that they have.

From the Article;

Users can go to www.coolhotmail.com, choose from the custom domains listed, and sign up for the new e-mail address through Windows Live. A user can, for example, have an e-mail address such as mahesh@coolaquarius.in or mahesh@chennairocks.in or mahesh@leavemealone.in. The e-mail address is also a Windows Live ID, which can also be used to access instant messaging and other services on the MSN and Windows Live network, Microsoft said.

The service has been launched first in India, with plans to introduce it in other markets as well, according to Samir Saraiya, product head for Windows Live Services at Microsoft India.

On a similar note, those of you who have looked a little more closely at this site will have noticed that I’m using a related service that allows me to make my own domain name available to Live Mail, then offer anybody an address @osrin.net. 

If you are interested to see how the domain binding works then take a look at the Live Domains service management interface, it is a really easy way to set up a common domain name for the family or for a group of friends.