Technology + R&D News from Bangalore

[sunilkumar]

This thread exclusively for technology related projects for Bangalore.

Bangalore R&D offshoring hub for 50 percent MNCs

Bangalore leads for R&D offshoring by MNCs, both for captive units and outsourced product development. About 50 percent of 780 MNC R&D centers are based in Bangalore, according to the research firm, Zinnov Management Consulting.

more info @ http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews...nid-58075.html

[sunilkumar]

Bangalore-based Karbonn Mobiles is planning to raise $50 Mn (Rs.230 Cr) through private equity and is in talks with two PE funds - Accel Partners and Mount Kellet Capital, for the same.

Karbonn Mobile is a joint venture between Bangalore-based United Telelinks group and Delhi-based Jaina group.

Karbonn Mobiles is in the process of setting up a handset manufacturing facility in Bangalore with a capacity of 400,000 units. It is expected to be operational by April this year. As of now, all of Karbonn’s handsets, like for most domestic players, are imported largely from China and Taiwan while the designing is done in India.

According to market research firm IDC, Karbonn Mobiles had a market share of 2.14% in the July-September 2010 quarter, with Nokia leading with a market share of 31.5%, followed by G'Five – 10.8%, Samsung – 8.2% and Micromax – 7.2%.

Last year in September, Private equity firms Sandstone Capital, Sequoia Capital and Madison India Capital invested around Rs.200 Cr for a minority stake of less than 10% in handset maker, Micromax.

Low cost handset maker Gee Pee Infotech Pvt Ltd is also planning to raise PE of Rs.100 Cr by diluting 20% stake to set up a new assembly unit and expand retail network across India, valuing the company at a valuation of Rs.500 Cr. Delhi-based Olive Telecom is also looking for PE funding.

Accel India’s portfolio includes Flipkart.com, Mitra Biotech, Inbiopro, Perfint among others.

Mount Kellett Capital’s Asia focused fund Mount Kellett Fund I was closed at $2.5 Bn in 2009.

[sunilkumar]

Technicolor is entering the 2D-to-3D business, with the company launching conversion units for feature and TV projects in Los Angeles, London and Bangalore, India.
As to the Los Angeles base, some conversion work has been done in Technicolor's Hollywood facility, but plans are to open a dedicated 2D-to-3D operation next month in Burbank.
Pierre Routhier, Technicolor’s vp for 3D product strategy and business development, told Screen International that MPC, Technicolor’s VFX business, will handle new releases in London and that conversion units in Los Angeles and Bangalore would handle catalog projects.
All final converted material will be passed through Technicolor’s recently launched 3D certification program, Certifi3D.

[sunilkumar]

Bangalore, Jan 20 (IANS) South Asia's largest machine tool exposition got underway Thursday in this tech hub to showcase the latest technological trends and products used by the Indian manufacturing industry.

Organised by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA), the 15th Indian metal-cutting machine tool exhibition (Imtex 2011) at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre (BIEC) on the outskirts of the city has attracted 23 countries, including Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Russia and the US to participate for the first time.

The biennial trade fair, being held with Tooltech 2011 as a concurrent show, has over 800 exhibitors displaying about 750 machines valued at Rs.1,400 crore (Rs.14 billion).

Inaugurating the seven-day event, Planning Commission member Arun Maira said manufacturing and machine tools industry played a vital role in the country's gross domestic product (GDP), which was poised to growth at around nine percent per annum.

'India is fast emerging as a global manufacturing hub and trade fairs like Imtex provide an ideal platform to showcase the latest trends in the machine tool sector and a venue for producers and consumers to interact,' Maira told about 1,000 delegates participating in the event.

Association president M. Lokeswara Rao said the focus of the expo was on high-end technology for growth sectors such as defence, aerospace automobile and medical engineering.

'For the first time in India, digital factories with enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages are being introduced in the machine tool industry. Manufacturers will replicate ideal shop floor conditions at the expo for consumers to experience the various machines in working condition,' Rao said.

State-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan, who was the guest of honour for the inaugural occasion, said with Bangalore emerging as a global aerospace engineering hub, advanced technology and manufacturing was essential to make India globally competitive and customer oriented.

'Aviation is a major tool for economic development and Imtex, with its focus on high-end technology will benefit the aerospace sector in India,' said Radhakrishnan.

Godrej & Boyce chairman and managing director Jamshyd N. Godrej said the machine tool industry supported the growth of several strategic sectors and industries in an economy.

'As growth in the machine tool industry is demand driven, it has a huge potential to become a global player by investing in innovation and research and development (R&D) activities,' Godrej, who is also chairman of the IMTMA's exhibitions, noted.

The association has set a target of compounded annual growth rate of 25 percent for the industry during the next 10 years to achieve a turnover of Rs.23,000 crore by 2020 from the estimated turnover of Rs.3,100 crore this fiscal (2010-11) and Rs.3,870 crore in the ensuing fiscal (2011-12), a growth of 24.8 percent over this fiscal.

Source @ http://www.sify.com/finance/south-as...ut4hifiec.html

[sunilkumar]

Starrag Heckert Machine Tools Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of Switzerland-based $250 million Starrag Heckert AG, a manufacturer of horizontal machining centers, today announced the setting up of a manufacturing plant in Bangalore, its first outside Europe.

The company will invest Rs50 crore on the new plant, which will produce 60 units per year in the first phase and 120 units in the second phase.

“There is a demand for about 300 horizontal machining centers in India annually and we want to capture about 15 per cent market share in the next two years. We will manufacture 4-axis and 5-axis horizontal machining centres for both Indian and Chinese markets,” A N Chandramouli, managing director, Starrag Heckert Machine Tools Pvt Ltd said.

As a first step towards its Indian operations, the company has set up a technology center at Peenya in Bangalore with an initial investment of Rs 6 crore.

The tech center will demonstrate its heavy duty WMW CWK machining centers. The headcount at the tech center will be doubled from the present 30 in the next one year, he said.

The machines produced in the new factory will be supported by tooled up solutions from the tech center, which will relocate to the new facility, he added.

Walter Borsch, executive vice-president (operations), StarragHeckert said, the company has recently acquired 8 acres land at Aerospace Park near Bangalore international airport from Karnataka

Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) to set up a greenfield facility to build WMW brand of machining centres, which will be operational in 2012.

The Bangalore facility will have 200 technical manpower, which will be trained through the Swiss Vocational Education and Training programme already initiated in collaboration with Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce, he said.

Ashok Leyland, BHEL, Hansen, HAL and Ace Designers are its early customers in India, for whom the company is importing machines from Europe, Chandramouli said adding that the company would be able to manufacture at 30 per cent less costs in India compared to Europe.

To begin with the company will achieve 40 per cent localisation in India and scale it up in the second phase, he said.

Globally, Starrag Heckert is known for its SIP Jig Borers, the precision milling machines. In India, it has sold over 100 such machines over the last four decades.

Souce @ http://www.business-standard.com/ind...n-city/422320/

[sunilkumar]

Gandhinagar: General Motors India will invest about $500 million over the next two to three years to increase production capacity in it's facilities in Halol, Gujarat and in Talegaon, Maharashtra.

In the next 12 months,GM India will invest $100 million at its Halol plant in Gujarat to increase production capacity from the current annual level of 85,000 units to to 1.05 lakh units a year.

The Halol facility will be converted into a hub for making commercial vehicles (CVs) which will be launched from the stable of GM's Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). Both SAIC and US-based GM have an equal stake (50%) in General Motors India.Currently the Halol plant produces the Aveo, Optra, Cruze and the multi-utility vehicle Tavera.

The second phase of expansion will take place in the company's Talegaon facility where production capacity will be increased from its current 1.4 lakh units per year to 1.6 lakh units per year.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 5th Global Summit of Vibrant Gujarat in Ahemedabad, General Motors India President and Managing Director Karl Slym said that the company has plans to launch six new cars in India in the next two years and to introduce 14 new variants of its existing car models.

According to reports, the six new vehicles to be launched include a pick-up van, multi-seater van, hatchback, sports utility vehicle and multi-purpose vehicle.

GM also plans to launch three models of SAIC light commercial vehicles of around 1 tonne capacity and the first LCV is expected by the end of the this year. With 90% localisation the engines will be sourced from GMI's engine manufacturing unit in Talegaon which was commissioned in November last year.The engine manufacturing facility built at the cost of USD 230 million, has an initial annual production capacity of 160,000 engines, both petrol and diesel, and is designed to accommodate future expansion.

GM will also be increasing its workforce strength in its General Motors Technical Centre at ITPL, Bangalore, which houses the R&D and engineering centre to support GM’s global portfolio.

Source @ http://machinist.in/index.php?option...=3018&Itemid=2

[sunilkumar]

BANGALORE: Local machine tool companies are finding themselves underequipped to deal with surging industry demand. This means that 70% of the demand is met by imports from countries such as Germany and China, and the industry acknowledges that unless swift measures are taken this trend could further strengthen.

With India's GDP growing at close to 9%, the demand for machine tools is expected to multiply from a number of industries including auto, general engineering, energy, railways and defence. According to Shailesh Sheth, chairman of the programme committee of the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association (IMTMA), the Indian machine tool industry saw a 25% CAGR growth over the last few years. "This is estimated to grow 50-100% over the next few years. But the capacity of local players is not enough to meet these demands," he said.

The auto sector accounts for 60% of machine tool demand in the country. Auto Component Manufacturers Association ( ACMA) estimates India will sell 2.7 million cars, 12.5 million two wheelers and 0.5 million commercial vehicles (CVs) in 2010-11. This will grow exponentially to 10 million cars, 30 million two wheelers and 2.2 million CVs by 2020. This means that auto component manufacturers will have to invest $2 billion every year, and machine tool operators in the country will have to ramp up capacity by 7-8 times to meet that demand.

The local machine tool players do not have the financial wherewithal to make such levels of investments. Around 60% of the sector consists of small unorganized players. The remaining 40% includes bigger organized players like HMT, Premier and Ace Micromatic. The current size of the machine tool industry stands at Rs 9,000 crore and IMTMA forecasts this to increase to Rs 23,000 crore by 2020.

Indian machine tool firms are also qualitatively unable to match the demands of the industry. "Most of the current local production caters to the lower end of the value chain and mainly to the auto component sector. Progressively we are seeing an increase in demand for more hi-technology products which are being met primarily through imports," said Jamshyd N Godrej, Chairman-Exhibitions of IMTMA, at the metal-cutting and machine tool exhibition IMTEX 2011 currently on in Bangalore.

Arun Maira, member of the Planning Commission, said countries such as Germany, South Korea, Japan, and now China, which have become significant players in the machine tool industry, developed their capabilities through heavy investments in R&D and manpower training. "In India as well we need to invest in these areas as there is a huge shortage of innovation as well as engineering talent," he said.

New capacities emerging

Companies such as Premier have begun increasing manufacturing and R&D capacity. "We have invested around Rs 120 crore over the last couple of years and are currently scouting for additional land to expand our capacity in Pune. We are also setting up a new R&D facility in Bangalore and moving into new product lines," said Maitreya Doshi, CMD of Premier.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has also been flowing in with companies like Germany's StarragHeckert recently announcing the setting up of a factory at Bangalore to build WMW machining centres. Walter Borsch, executive VP-operations, said the greenfield manufacturing facility would entail a Rs 50 crore investment. Products are expected to start rolling out in the next 24 months.

German group Gildemeister and Japanese group Mori Seiki are expanding their presence in India by jointly investing in a new technology centre.

The IMTMA is encouraging joint ventures between Indian and foreign technology majors. It is also lobbying with the government for setting up a Rs 2,000 crore corpus to support the sector as well as for the establishment of regional machine tool clusters in Punjab, Gujarat, Pune, Belgaum and Coimbatore, all of which have a significant machine tool industry presence.

source @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...ow/7327984.cms

[sunilkumar]

BANGALORE: Over the next few years India will emerge as a global hub for Swedish company Volvo Bus Corporation. The company has laid plans to develop four regions in the world -- India, China, Poland and Mexico as regional hubs for exports and product development. India will cater to the South Asian markets as well as some other developing regions like South Africa.

For this, Volvo will invest Rs 200 crore over the next 2-3 years at its manufacturing unit in Hoskote, on the outskirts of Bangalore. It plans to increase its manufacturing capacity to 5,000 units by 2015. "The company is also expanding its R&D base in the country by setting up a new product development establishment in India," said Hakan Karlsson, president and CEO of Volvo Bus Corporation, who was in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Volvo India is also increasing its component-sourcing footprint in the country. "We plan to make India, the auto component sourcing hub for the rest of our manufacturing centres. The bus body for our Indian products is today totally localized. We plan to make 100% localized buses in the future," said Rune Lundberg, senior VP, Volvo Bus Corporation. For greater localization the company is also setting up a new engine factory in Pithampur, MP.

Volvo Buses India grew by around 15% in volumes in 2010 selling close to 500 buses. It expects a growth of 15-20% overall with soft services to contribute 50% of its revenue by 2013-14.

Source @ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/b...ow/7284238.cms

[engineer.akash]

Mercedes may follow Tata's footsteps, develop a small car

Jan 28, 2011, 05.36pm IST

MUMBAI: On the back of a thriving domestic economy fuelled by an increasing appetite for consumption, global auto giant Mercedes-Benz is looking at developing a small car for the Indian market, a senior company executive said.

The company, however, has not arrived at any time-frame to translate the idea into a concrete plan, the executive said.

"We can develop our own (small) car for India in future," Mercedes Benz India's Chief Financial Officer and Management Board Member, Uwe Jarosch, told reporters here.

The car development requires a huge investment and therefore it needs to be backed up by volumes, Jarosch said.

"If we are investing Euro 1-billion on development of the car, then definitely (we) want huge volumes to justify it," he said.

The company's R&D centre in Bangalore, which supports the company's headquarters in Germany is likely to work on the small car project.

Mercedes-Benz also plans to nearly double the headcount at its Bangalore centre from the present 600, by next year, he said.

As a part of its business strategy, the German car-maker also plans to set up brand centres with investment from its existing dealers, which would show-case around 20-odd models.

The first such centre is expected to be set up in Delhi by March this year, Jarosch said, adding Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai centres would come up at a later stage.

TOI

[engineer.akash]

General Motors India introduces locally-developed 1.2L Smart-Tech Engine

By Green Car Congress on 01/28/2011 – 2:50 am PST

General Motors India has introduced its new Smart-Tech engine. The 1.2-liter Smart-Tech engine was created by the GM Technical Centre-India in Bangalore in cooperation with GM’s new engine plant in Talegaon. It will be produced at the Talegaon facility for a range of new models offered by GM in India.

The Smart-Tech engine features aluminum cylinder heads, deep skirt cylinder block and lightweight pistons with low tension rings, which decreases weight and maximizes fuel economy. The engine also features a DOHC valvetrain with direct acting valve actuation to further improve the efficiency, a long runner plastic intake manifold for good low-end torque and lightweight counterbalanced crank shaft for great NVH.

The engine has a maintenance-free inverted tooth timing chain drive system. The chain links engage at a lower impact speed, which decreases the noise generated for quiet operation.

[think-tank]

K'taka set to be a semicon hub

After getting the cabinet nod for the Karnataka Semiconductor Policy 2010, the state IT department is planning to transform the state as the semiconductor hub of the country. The state, a pioneer in the IT revolution of the country, is now exploring options like partnerships with fab manufacturing countries, research and development organisations and also with academic institutions to explore possibilities for the growth of semiconductor companies located in the state.

The state has also offered various fiscal incentives to companies to boost the growth of electronic sector. Global semiconductor design and manufacturing market size is expected to be around $ 200 billion. The semiconductor design market in India was $6.5 billion in 2009 and is estimated to cross $7.5 billion in 2011. Currently, the state has a presence of more than 80 design companies like the AMD, Intel, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, ARM among others and it contributes to over 70 per cent of the overall India market.

Ashok Kumar Manoli Principal Secretary for IT BT and ST Karnataka State said: “We announced semiconductor policy last year focusing on the need of semiconductor sector. We now realized the need for a policy for manufacturing and has come out with Karnataka Electronics Hardware Policy and has earmarked Rs 25 crore as budgetary allocation for implementation of the policy.”

According to a recent report from ISA, by the year 2020 electronics consumption in India will reach $400 billion from its current share of $45 billion. Though India is a big consumer of electronic equipments majority of the semiconductor and electronic equipments are imported from countries like Taiwan, China, Singapore. Industry experts believe that it can act as a barrier for the growth of the sector in India, as it will lead to an import oriented market.

“India has to develop the manufacturing capacity to become a leader in the semiconductor business. Taiwan is one of the biggest fab country in the world and we are exploring various partnership programme with the country. Taiwan is also looking at possibilities of establishing electronic hardware zone in the state,” said Manoli.

Karnataka has recently signed an MoU with Israel’s MATIMOP, the Israeli Industry Center for R&D, for research and development partnership. “Other than these partnerships African country Rwanda is very keen on a MoU to draw benefits from the IT strengths of the state,” he said.

With the semiconductor policy government is also promoting establishment of solar farms and solar Photo voltaic manufacturing. The state government has set up the first solar farm in Bangarpet taluk of Kolar with a capacity to generate 3MW power. Two other plants of 3 Mw capacity are proposed to be set up in Raichur and Belgaum.

Earlier, in order to enable the semiconductor companies to avail the benefits enumerated in the Policy and to create awareness among the industrialists, The Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka organised a half-day event in coordination with ISA and MAIT.

source

[sunilkumar]

Bangalore, Jan 24 (PTI) Underwriters Laboratories (UL), aglobal leader in product safety testing and certification,today announced the opening of its testing and certificationfacility for photovoltaic (PV) equipment here.

This state-of-the-art lab is UL's fifth global footprintand has been set up with an investment of USD four million,the company said in a statement.

"The lab is equipped with Environmental Chambers, SunSimulators and Instrumentation from global leaders like ESPEC,Spire Corporation and Agilent", it said. It is capable oftesting and certifying 48 families of PV modules in a year.

Apart from testing for certification, this facility canalso support testing for product development, quality controland performance assessment for PV power plants.

source @ http://news.oneindia.in/2011/01/24/u...l-aid0126.html

[sunilkumar]

Responsys, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions, today announced the opening of a new office in India. As a development hub, the new office in Bangalore provides Responsys with access to local talent in the region.

Helping to expand the company’s presence in the region, Srishti Sofat has taken the role of General Manager of Responsys Business Solutions India Private Limited, reporting to Antonio Casacuberta, Chief Technology Officer. Unti`l recently, Sofat served as General Manager of InfoSpace, a developer of metasearch products, leading that company’s development center in India. Sofat brings over a decade of development experience and a local network of talented engineers to Responsys.

“Responsys is always looking for attractive opportunities to expand globally,” said Dan Springer, Chief Executive Officer of Responsys. “A Bangalore office provides access to some of the top engineers outside of the U.S. We’ll continue to invest in excellent people to help us continue to deliver the innovative products our customers expect from Responsys.”

“The opening of a new R&D center in Bangalore illustrates Responsys’ strong commitment to India,” said Srishti Sofat, General Manager of Responsys Business Solutions India Private Limited. “Through our Bangalore center, we will be able to accelerate the development of solutions for our global customers and help them capitalize on today’s most important marketing channels such as email, mobile, social, and the web to drive higher revenue.”

The Bangalore center is focused on developing enterprise solutions in the areas of distributed computing, high volume transaction processing, and large scale system design. With a strong commitment to India, Responsys plans to further grow its Bangalore center with a recent move to a new office in Bangalore. By selecting exceptional high quality technical talent from premier engineering institutions and companies, Responsys plans to ramp up their Bangalore center head count in the near future.

http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets...ore/5069974063

[sunilkumar]

India and Switzerland will further strengthen the bilateral efforts in health research by setting up a global science and technology outpost in India and launching another round of collaborative research programme in the field of medical sciences and nanotechnology.

Switzerland is establishing a global science and technology centre named Swissnex India in Bangalore to foster cooperation in research. It will serve as an Indian R&D hub and host several scientific and technology institutes. It is also intended as a base for Swiss and Indian organizations to connect, share knowledge and form partnerships in science and technology.

Swissnex is run by Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Education and Research together with the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. It will be the fifth such global centre after San Francisco, Boston, Shanghai and Singapore. Research areas will include material sciences and nanotechnology, health and medical sciences along with information and communication technologies, sources said.

Besides, the two countries together will launch another round of joint research programme in the field of infectious biology including innovative and safe vaccine development. “The collaborative project looks to encourage further advances in research and knowledge production within the programme's priority research areas. It will aim to create synergies across borders and institutes and to draw benefit from pooled research efforts and expertise,” according to official sources.

Both the governments will extend grants to the select scientists in both the countries to take up research under the collaborative programme that will last for three years. “All grants for the year 2012 are subject to the approval by the Swiss Parliament in 2011. Total Swiss funding budgeted: CHF 2 million. Swiss funding will be awarded to the Swiss main applicants to cover the costs for the Swiss part of the joint projects (maximum of support: CHF 250’000 for 3 years). Grant funds may not be used to cover overhead costs. The over-head charges to the Indian participating Institutes shall be provided by Department of Science and Technology as per prevailing DST norms,” said a notification.

Indo-Swiss Joint Research Programme was founded in 2005 by the Swiss State Secretariat of Education and Research (SER) and the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) with the goal of furthering cooperation in strategic scientific and technical areas relevant to Switzerland and India.

It is aimed at supporting research partnerships between Swiss and Indian scientists, by promoting faculty and student exchanges between the two countries, and by facilitating access to specialised equipment and resources in the counterpart country.

On the Indian side, ISJRP is directed and coordinated by DST. In Switzerland, ISJRP is implemented and managed by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the Swiss Leading House for India. Since 2008, EPFL is assisted by the University of Lausanne (UNIL), the Associated Leading House for India.

Since its inception, ISJRP has issued two calls for joint proposals, one in January 2005 and one in December 2007. Both calls aroused strong interest among Swiss and Indian scientists, reflecting the high demand for such an opportunity.

Bangalore Fastly emerging as a global healthcare research hub


source @ http://www.pharmabiz.com/NewsDetails...id=61081&sid=1

[engineer.akash]

Carl Zeiss opens R&D centre in City

Bangalore, Feb 5, DHNS:

Carl Zeiss Meditec, medical technology division of €3.8 billion German-based optical and opto-electronic major — Carl Zeiss AG Group, on Saturday, announced the setting up of CARin (Centre for Applications & Research) in Bangalore.

Briefing reporters, Carl Zeiss AG President & CEO Michael Kaschke, said the centre is aimed at strengthening the group’s presence in India and target investments in research and development projects. Carl Zeiss Meditec President & CEO Ludwin Monz said the centre will be engaged in critical areas of ophthalmology — glaucoma, cataracts as also diabetes-led eye deficiencies.

The centre, he said, will collaborate closely with medical research institutes, hospitals and universities in India to jointly develop IP-led product and application development, medical techniques and solutions, besides clinical applications and studies.

The centre, currently scouting for a new location to house itself, will be expanded to 50 staff strength and over years work on entire product spectrum of Carl Zeiss Meditec.

DHNS

[sunilkumar]

Microsoft had Proposed 'Microsoft University' in bangalore during HDK period, Any update on this?

http://www.yespiracy.com/forum/showt...p?t=8432&page=

[engineer.akash]

AkzoNobel targets growth after opening new coatings plant in India

February 7, 2011

AkzoNobel's ambition to accelerate growth and increase revenue in India to EUR1 billion within the next five years has been underlined today by the official opening of a new Industrial Coatings plant near Bangalore.

The facility - which will produce coil and specialty plastic coatings - is located in Hoskote on an existing AkzoNobel site which already manufactures marine and protective coatings, automotive coatings and powder coatings.

"India will develop into one of the world's economic powerhouses and it ranks very highly on our list of priority high growth countries," said Leif Darner, the AkzoNobel Board member responsible for Performance Coatings. "We are already well represented in India, but as the largest global producer of coatings, we are committed to making a significant contribution to the country's continued development."

Added Conrad Keijzer, Managing Director of AkzoNobel Industrial Coatings: "Increasing our capacity in India is important because local demand is growing. This is being driven by a number of factors, particularly the rapid increase in average household incomes and the associated growth of the housing, construction, consumer electronics and automotive sectors."

The technologies most in demand include laser-etch coatings for the automotive industry, soft-touch technology for smart phones and coil coatings for high performance steel and aluminum construction markets.

The new Bangalore facility will be capable of manufacturing up to 18 million liters per year, with scope for further expansion. The additional capacity will also boost the company's ability to meet the growing demand in India and neighboring countries.

AkzoNobel currently employs around 1,500 people in India and operates six production facilities, two research laboratories and around a dozen sales locations, representing activities from across all Coatings and Specialty Chemicals businesses.

Source

[engineer.akash]

Small car Reva maker Maini Group to make Airbus parts for A380 & A320

7 Feb, 2011, 11.34AM IST, Peerzada Abrar,ET Bureau

BANGALORE: In one of the largest aerospace outsourcing contracts awarded to a mid-tier Indian firm, Bangalore-based Maini Group has bagged a multi-million dollar contract from German engine maker MTU Aero-Engines to make components for Eurofighter Typhoon and Airbus planes.

The engineering group, best known as maker of Reva, the country's first ever electric passenger car, will develop engine components for multi-role combat aircraft Eurofighter Typhoon and next generation A380 and A320 planes of Airbus, the world's largest aircraft maker. The deal will be signed during the Bangalore Air Show (Aero India 2011) which takes off on 9th February.

"With the commercial aero-engine market expected to generate about $740 billion sales over the next 20 years, we are now looking forward to growing the relationship with MTU on a strategic level," said Naresh Palta, chief executive, Maini Aerospace. "The group will invest around $30-40 million in the next 4-5 years to scale up its infrastructure and capacity," said Palta, who was earlier an executive director at public sector major, Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL). Last year, the group bagged an outsourcing contract worth up to $10 million from Marshall Aerospace , subcontractors for Boeing , the world's largest aerospace company.

"The timing of Maini's transformation to Aerospace is right. It will take them another five years to actually see the results," says B Mahadevan, professor, production and operations management, at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B).

The contract work will be led by group companies Maini Precision Products (MPP), including its subsidiary company Maini Global Aerospace (MGA). The multi-year contract now positions the Mainis as strategic suppliers to the German major that has total revenues of $ 3.5 billion and partners with aero-engine manufacturers such as GE, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce to source aero-engine components.

"For them this is the India test, to see whether private industry in India can actually deliver as per the German standards," said Gautam Maini, managing director, Maini Precision, who led the aerospace foray for the group even as younger brother Chetan Maini made waves with Reva. "Aerospace is going to be a big market in 5-8 years. The business cycle ranges between 7 and 8 years. It was a quantum shift, something we had to believe for a long-term," says Maini.

Maini Aerospace , which got Snecma, a major French manufacturer of engines, as its first customer, has now developed more than 900 build-to-print parts in the past six years. These involve contracts from global customers such as Safran, BAE Systems , Eaton, Goodrich and Magellan Aerospace . It is also working with state-owned HAL to make components for various projects.

ET

[raghumr72@gmail.com]

If anything had been announced in HDK's rule, then rest assured that nothing will happen, cos he is interested only in destrying not in developing Bangalore / Karnataka.

[avinash2060]

After waiting almost four years to secure vacant land next to its existing campus in sector 25-A of Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, the Indian arm of US-based software firm Adobe Systems Inc. has given up plans to expand at the site. The company has purchased land instead in sector 132 of Noida where it will build the new facility spread over 7.5 acres.

The company has earmarked around $100 million for expansion in Noida and Bangalore, which together make for Adobe Systems’ largest research and development (R&D) centre outside the US.

Around $50 million will go into the new Noida campus and the rest will be used for expanding the Bangalore facility, Adobe India’s managing director Naresh Gupta said.

“We are building it in phases and the total capacity of the centre will be designed to meet our requirement for the next 3-5 years,” he said.

Gupta did not say whether the existing campus will be shut once the new one comes up around mid-2012. But he said that the company’s objective was to consolidate business operations at one place to make them more efficient.

The $100 million earmarked for infrastructure expansion isn’t part of the $200 million that Adobe had committed to India in 2006.

“We have already spent that $200 million fund on building capabilities and skill sets,” said Gupta.

The company, which undertakes product development out of its campus in Noida and Bangalore, proposed to set up a centre of the same scale next to its three-acre campus in Sector 25-A. But it had to shelve the plan in the wake of delays by the Noida Authority in allotting land.

According to Adobe’s annual report for fiscal 2008-09, India is the only location, apart from San Francisco on Townsend and Waltham, where the company doesn’t lease or sublease its properties and instead owns them.

“The Board of Directors has approved facilities expansion for our operations in India, which may include the purchase of land and buildings,” the report says.

The company has similar plans for expanding its Bangalore centre. Paul Weiskopf, senior vice-president, corporate development, at Adobe, who was recently in India, said the company is increasingly using its research and development (R&D) teams in India not only for the firm’s traditional suite of imaging and document software, but also for integrating content creation and deployment across devices.

“We now have 1,700 people, mostly in Noida and Bangalore,” he said, adding that about 35% of Adobe’s engineering talent worldwide is in India. “We have now close to 20 products that are managed entirely out of India, like Illustrator, Captivate, Photoshop elements, and Framemaker,” he said.

“In terms of innovation, we have generated over 200 patent filings for Adobe out of India, and we have recently opened an Advanced Technology Lab. Plus, there is a lot of work on forward-looking fundamental research and innovation,” said Weiskopf.

While India is yet not a big market for the company in terms of sales, it continues to increase its employee base in the country for R&D.

“Our new Noida campus should be ready by 2012 — land has been purchased and plans for construction are well under way. We have plans to expand in Bangalore as well. India is a large and growing market in its own right and in terms of talent, so it is certainly one of the many markets we are looking at,” said Weiskopf.Adobe’s India research and development centre was started in 1997 and has since grown to be its second largest R&D campus worldwide.

In the last fiscal, the company reported revenues of $2.9 billion globally, out of which Asia contributed $634.4 million, most of which came from Japan. Adobe doesn’t report its India revenue seperately.

Surabhi.a@livemint.com

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