Looking to invest big in India; taxation concern: Oracle

Below is the edited transcript of the interviews with Shereen Bhan on CNBC-TV18.

Safra Ada Catz, Global CEO, Oracle Corporation

Q: You have had a meeting with Indian Finance Minister who is here speaking to investors trying to build confidence; do you feel better about India?

Catz: I feel great about India. Actually we have had a fantastic meeting. Things are changing, all changing for the better. Oracle has been in India since 1994. We were one of the originals, we have got over 30,000 employees doing every line of business for us. The meeting we just had makes me very optimistic about the future of India and our work in India.

Q: So what can we expect then in terms of incremental investments, in terms of upping your head count in India and what are the key concerns that you have with regards to growing your business in India currently?

Catz: We should be quite optimistic about our future investment in India. One of the concerns we did have and we continue to have are some of the different tax issues that impact especially large multinationals like us and Oracle specifically. I am hopeful that those can be reviewed and looked at generally and so we are very optimistic. We have expanded, we have just moved into even more buildings all over the country. We have nearly a dozen cities that have very large Oracle sites already and we are hoping to continue that.

Q: In terms of specific opportunities in India because this government's mission is to focus on the smart city projects for instance Digital India and so on and so forth and of course the market and the economy is growing at over seven and half percent what would that translate into in terms of future opportunities for Oracle in India?

Catz: For Oracle this is a fantastic news. We are the real core of any digitalisation project. India with its vibrant economy and people are a wonderful opportunity for us to ultimately sell more, invest more and work more together. So, we are more optimistic.

Shantanu Narayen, President & CEO, Adobe Systems

Q: The finance minister is trying to pitch the India story to foreign investors like Adobe, the Google and Amazon of the world but in a sense he is preaching to the converted because you are already invested in India and you have been significantly upping your investment in India over the last few years. What is it that you think people are going to be watching out for from him?

Narayen: I think there are two aspects of what we like to hear from him. The first is what is he going to do to make India a better place for us to invest and from a talent point of view I do not think anybody has had any issues. But also from business climate and in software particularly how the digital India initiative could be an initiative where companies like Adobe can leverage our technology to make a business out of it in addition to developing great software and it will be interesting to hear his perspectives on both.

Q: But in specific when you talk about digital India, what is it that you would like more clarity on because everyone wants a piece of either digital India or smart city initiative but no one is quite sure of the nuts and bolts and the manner in which the government is planning to roll all of this out?

Narayen: I am privileged in that. I serve on President Obama's Management Advisory Board and what has been clear in the US is that you can use technology to good use in order to change citizen facing services. And in India when you think of how mobile phones can be used to completely disrupt government and transform government, it will be interesting to understand how he would like US companies based in technology to look at that as an opportunity. How we will contribute as all of us look at how technology has transformed lives as India has the opportunity to leapfrog generations of technology.

Q: Specifically on tax related issues, royalty related issues, IT companies that had trouble in India. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) continues to be a problem and a challenge that people, investors are concerned about. On both of these issues, do you believe that the needle has moved forward?

Narayen: Intellectual Property concerns which we have another companies like movies have. I do not think the fundamental business environment has changed but what Adobe has done specifically in that regard is rather than distribute software through desktop software that was easily pirateable, we are now delivering it through the cloud and so the beauty of it is the fact that customers, in case they want the access to the best technology, have to subscribe to the cloud. So we are using technology rather than policy to solve the problem.