IBM, the world's largest infotech company, seems to be betting big on India.

The past few weeks have seen its top three global executives -- chairman Samuel J Palmisano, president Steven Mills and head of technology and manufacturing Nicholas M Donofrio -- on business visits to India.

And now, it's the turn of Paul Horn, head of IBM research, the hallowed research unit, to be here soon.

IBM executives in India are tight-lipped about the reasons behind these visits.

But the buzz is that IBM is moving strategic operations in the software business area, and looking at expanding its hardware and services operations in India.

An industry source said India offers a great destination for a company like IBM to shift its significant software development and services work.

Besides, with the consolidation of Indian IT-enabled market, the company can look at moving substantial part of its BPO operations also to India.

"The visits of the senior executives of the company is likely to be a prelude to major investment plans by the company," the source added.

The company, which employs about 4,000 people locally, is also betting heavily on Linux in India. "Linux is a focus area for IBM in India. We are increasing out investment in that are in India," president Steven Mills had said during his visit.

Even Palmisano, during his visit to India, undertook a case for Linux in his meetings with senior government officials including IT and Communications Minister Arun Shourie.

It is learnt that Palmisano also argued in favour of Linux pointing out that use of it can lead to higher employment generation as new software applications need to be developed on the Linux platform.

IBM wants corporation with key Indian research institutes in the areas of research and development and how the company can expand the scope of its associations with various Indian research institutes and universities.

The company, which invented the personal computer, has made substantial investments in India.

These include the hardware manufacturing facility in Pondicherry, the software services business, research & development and Linux.

Software initiatives included development of operating systems including IBM's thrusts in Linux, networking protocol products, high-end graphics and multimedia, database and compilers and high-end applications in manufacturing, banking, telecom and media.