Wipro Ltd., India's third-largest IT services provider, has set up an embedded engineering centre for US-based Harman International Industries Inc., to jointly develop products and technologies for automotive, consumer and professional markets.

Under the deal, Wipro will set up a Harman India development centre at its Bangalore and Chennai facilities. The plant will concentrate on software and hardware engineering to develop next-generation embedded solutions for Harman's customers.

The alliance will also complement the outsourcing of Harman's IT infrastructure services to Wipro Technologies. However, Harman will hold the IP (intellectual property) developed in the centre by Wipro engineers.

Both partners plan to start facility initially with a team of 250 engineers, which may further be increased to more than 1,000 by 2011, depending on how the partnership evolves.

The New York Stock Exchange listed Harman International Industries involves in the designing, manufacturing  and marketing of audio and infotainment products for the automotive, consumer and professional markets. The company employs more than 12,000 professionals worldwide.