BENGALURU: Donald Trump will be dismayed. The number of MNCs with engineering and R&D centres in India grew to 976 in 2017, from 943 the year before. The number is expected to rise to 1,005 this year, according to a study by consulting firm Zinnov. And more than 60% of these MNCs are from the US.With technology becoming central to every industry, engineers are becoming vital for all companies. And India is the only country where MNCs can hope to get engineers in the numbers they are looking for, and with the requisite skills.The number of employees in these MNC centres – called global inhouse centres (GICs) – rose to 396,000 in 2017, from 343,000 in the year before, and is expected to rise to 435,000 this year, a growth of 10%. At a time when jobs are scarce in India, this is one segment that is creating jobs in good numbers. The centres also tend to be among the best paymasters in the Indian tech industry.Overall, the MNCs are estimated to have spent – including on infrastructure and salaries in GICs – $15 billion in 2017, up from $13 billion in 2016. That’s a 15% growth “It’s higher than the growth in IT services,” Zinnov CEO Pari Natarajan said.The numbers do not include MNCs’ IT and BPM (business process management) operations. Including these, Zinnov had estimated that there were 1,571 centres and 815,000 employees in 2016. The more recent numbers are still in the process of being put together.Natarajan said there are a growing number of Asian companies establishing GICs in India. In 2017, Grab Taxi from Singapore and Great Wall Motor from China established centres. Indonesia ’s Go-Jek, which entered in 2016, now has a big presence.Natarajan said India is becoming the global decision-making headquarters for many companies in the area of automation. Automation Anywhere and UiPath, two of the world’s biggest automation platforms, have major centres here. “India is the centre of excellence for automation R&D,” Natarajan said.Software talent is the big reason that draws MNCs to India. Software is becoming critical even in industrial companies like Honeywell , ABB and GE. The advent of IoT (internet of things) is accelerating this.Banks have traditionally been the biggest and fastest adopters of technology. And many banks today have massive engineering organisations in India. Natarajan said professional services companies like Deloitte and Ernst & Young are today building analytics products to generate insights, and are therefore becoming major hirers of software talent in India.He said he expects telecom and media & entertainment MNCs to increase their GIC presence in India. The likes of Netflix and Disney are expected to require lots more software talent. “Many MNCs will also want to build GICs in India because the country’s also becoming a big market for them,” he said.And despite its exasperating traffic, Bengaluru remains the hot favourite for GICs. “It has an ecosystem of software talent that no other city has. And it’s easy for Bengaluru to attract talent from Chennai and Hyderabad,” Natarajan said.