R&D in networking hardware and software is accelerating, as several new development projects have been announced this month in Bangalore and Pune, India, and at least one foreign firm has located operations in the United States, according to experts. Last week Cisco Systems, which first established operations in India in 1995, broke ground on a brand-new, 1 million-square-foot R&D facility in Bangalore, budgeting US$50 million for the project and planning to hire 3,000 scientists, engineers and researchers.