Technology + R&D News from Bangalore

[engineer.akash]

Gandhi City - India's first R&D based SEZ to raise US $25 million through PEs

Gandhi City for Advanced Research & Development Ltd, which has received approvals to set up the country's first R&D based Special Economic Zone (SEZ), will shortly raise US $25 million, as the first phase of investment for the project. Two top Private Equity (PE) firms have already evinced interest in investing in Gandhi City, which is in the process of creating an ecosystem to foster collaboration between the industry, institutes and research organizations near Ramanagara, 30 kilometers from the technology hub of Bangalore.

Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, May 27, 2011 /India PRwire/ -- Gandhi City for Advanced Research & Development Ltd, which has received approvals to set up the country's first R&D based Special Economic Zone (SEZ), will shortly raise US $25 million, as the first phase of investment for the project.

Two top Private Equity (PE) firms have already evinced interest in investing in Gandhi City, which is in the process of creating an ecosystem to foster collaboration between the industry, institutes and research organizations near Ramanagara, 30 kilometers from the technology hub of Bangalore.

The SEZ project will have four phases of investment, spread across 10 years, to raise US $600 million through various routes. "The total project outlay is Rs 2,620 crore. Our plan is to replace minor investors by bringing in PE funds. It will be equivalent to 9 per cent of the total share-holding of Gandhi City," says Giri Devanur, Promoter, Gandhi City SEZ.

The process of acquiring 350 acres of land for the project is on. The Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB), the nodal agency for land acquisition in Karnataka, will complete the process shortly. The SEZ will be spread over 1,000 acres, housing research labs, incubation centers, and high-end technology testing facilities.

Gandhi City will focus on multiple disciplines, such as, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences; Automotive and Aviation; Technology and Communications, and Agricultural sciences, in association with educational institutions. It is the first of its kind SEZ modeled on the lines of Stanford Research Park, US. Gandhi City SEZ has entered into a technological understanding with Research Triangle Park, US.

Gandhi City, a premier R&D SEZ, the only such project in India. Spread across 1,000 acres near the technology hub Bangalore, India, Gandhi City SEZ aims to create an ecosystem to foster the right collaboration between the industry, institutions, and research organizations. The total investment set to flow into the project is Rs 2,620 crore in association with major technology partners.

Gandhi City is promoted by Mr. Giri Devanur, a serial technology entrepreneur and innovator. He is a computer engineering graduate from the University of Mysore, India. He also studied at the premier Massachusetts Institute Technology (MIT), Cambridge.

He has over 21 years of experience as an Entrepreneur CEO in the technology industry. He floated several companies; successfully contributed to mergers and acquisitions; and infused capital from VCs and PE firms.

Giri Devanur is the founder of Ivega, a specialist IT services provider. He successful expanded the company, in terms of growth and revenue, and sold it to TCG.

Source

It will come up in Ramnagara.

ABB plans Rs 115 cr unit in Karnataka

BS Reporter / Chennai/ Bangalore May 28, 2011, 0:19 IST

Plant will manufacture miniature circuit breakers.

ABB, the global power and automation technology group, announced on Friday that it will invest approximately $24 million (Rs 115 crore) in a new facility in India to manufacture a new range of Miniature Circuit Breakers (MCB), Residual Current Circuit Breakers (RCCB) and Surge Protection Devices (SPD).

The new manufacturing facility will be set up in Nelamangala campus at Bangalore and employ around 300 people.

“This is our biggest investment worldwide in 2011, with the motive to support the market growth in India with the availability of high quality products and state-of-the-art training centers and facilities,” said Tarak Mehta, head of ABB’s Low Voltage Products division.

Tommy Andreasson, manager of the Low Voltage Products division in India added, “With focus now on India, this investment is targeted to meet the customer requirements of the local market.”

ABB’s low voltage products division in India has delivered 25 million poles to the domestic market through wholesalers and a network of channel partners.

This investment will increase the production capacity to serve both domestic and export markets.

The plant will manufacture a new range of protection devices used in residential and commercial buildings, industrial and renewable energy applications, data centers and telecommunications industries to protect installations against over current, short circuits and leakage current.

ABB has posted a more than nine times rise its net profit to Rs 59.54 crore in the first quarter of CY11 as compared with Rs 6.63 crore reported in the corresponding period last year.

Total income has increased by 21.89 per cent to Rs 1800.5 crore during this period.

[avinash2060]

Bangalore: For many who see Infosys as conservative, this may come as a surprise. The company's new management under K V Kamath and S D Shibulal is planning to set up a separate company focused on IT products, platforms and intellectual property-driven solutions.

The $6-billion company has so far built its global reputation on providing IT services to international firms. The move to establish this new company represents a focused shift to a higher value business. Products are riskier to do, given that they can fail even after substantial investments . But the payoffs from successful products can be huge, as the likes of Microsoft , IBM and SAP have shown.

"We are discussing several options to set up this new company to house innovations ," Subhash Dhar, the head of business innovation at Infosys told TOI. One of these is to make an acquisition of an existing company that is involved in areas where Infosys is looking to innovate . These areas include fast growing practices such as cloud computing, mobility and sustainability.

The other option is to create a new company. Employees at Infosys who are already involved on the innovation side, which includes products and platforms, would move to this new firm.

Dhar said the new company would provide a start-up kind of environment. Product-driven companies require a culture and DNA that nurtures out-of-the-box thinking, the way start-ups do. This culture is very different from what prevails in large firms, which tend to get tied down by processes and bureaucratic procedures, and in IT servicefocused firms, which does not involve much risk-taking .

Siddharth Pai, MD of global sourcing advisory services firm TPI India , said Indian service providers had shown with core banking solutions that they can compete with the best product companies in the world (Infosys has a successful banking product called Finacle, and TCS has a successful one called Bancs). He said it is a natural progression for IT services companies to move to products. "The lines are blurring between product and services players. To remain competitive , it is essential to become a full services provider. It can help win long-term and stickier deals." Pai echoed Dhar's view that the two businesses are fundamentally different, and therefore a separate entity for products and platforms makes sense. Nasscom president Som Mittal said that clients are now demanding high-end solutions such as platforms and products from Indian IT service providers to drive greater value and efficiencies.

The Indian IT sector , he said, had moved up the value chain from providing basic application support to become domain experts. Mittal said that from the IT companies' perspective, such initiatives are also driven by the need for them to become more non-linear (do more with fewer employees) and become end-to-end service providers.

Dhar said that traditional IT services are getting commoditized , with pricing and margin pressures. "In order to bring in non-linearity and differentiation in a competitive environment, innovative products and platforms become vital."

The firm has begun the process of setting up a separate unit. Seven new positions at VP and AVP levels have just been created for products and platforms, four of which will be for innovations coming out of the banking & finance, manufacturing , retail, and energy and utilities segments. The other three will build product engineering , product management and commercialization teams for new innovations.

"We have not fully utilized several of our products and IP-led platform solutions. The plan is to monetize some of these opportunities as well as build future products and solutions under this new unit," said Dhar. This includes existing products like mobile application platform Flypp and healthcare product I Transform , as well as solutions built for areas like supply chain visibility. The banking product Finacle however will not be part of this unit since it is already well established.

The products and platforms effort is part of the 'Infosys 3.0' strategy under which it intends to transform from a technology solutions company to a business solutions firm. It recently structured the company under three service lines. The first is transformation , which includes 'Change-the-business' initiatives like package implementation and consulting. The second is business operations, which includes 'run-the-business ' initiatives like application development & maintenance, testing and BPO. And the third is innovation, including products and platforms.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/8615762.cms

[engineer.akash]

Manjushree Technopack FY11 net profit up 40%

India Infoline News Service / 10:33 , May 28, 2011

The company crossed Rs. 200 crore mark this year
Bangalore based Manjushree Technopack Ltd, the leaders in rigid plastic packaging in the country, have announced their annual results for the year ending March 31, 2011. The company crossed Rs. 200 crore mark this year and has once again shown impressive growth of 40 to 50 percent across all key performance indicators like sales turnover, PBT and PAT.

Announcing the results, Vimal Kedia, Managing Director, Manjushree Technopack Ltd, said “This is a landmark year for us with our turnover crossing the Rs. 200 crore mark. Our strong focus on providing superior packaging solutions on-time to key FMCG and beverage customers has enabled us to keep the momentum going. To satisfy the huge demand, we have also expanded out capacity by 10,500 MTPA during the year. In the coming year, our focus will be on serving the growing demand from our customers like Coca Cola and Pepsi, adding new verticals and presenting new innovations in the market, such as beer in PET. With rigid packaging expanding its presence across verticals, our customers can expect even more from us in the year to come.”
Manjushree Technopack’s current capacity stands at 40,000 MTPA (largest in the country) with the commissioning of one Husky and four ASB blow moulding machines in 2010-2011. As per their expansion plans, the company has also committed investments of Rs. 150 crores for two new facilities at Bidadi and Harohalli Industrial Areas in Bangalore, that are expected to be operational by mid 2012. Land has been procured and work has commenced on the new manufacturing facilities.

IP Infusion opens engineering development center in India

IP Infusion, Inc has opened an Engineering Development Center of Excellence in Bangalore, India. IP Infusion plans to make India a hub for the design, development and innovation of next-generation networking technologies.The India Engineering Development Center of Excellence will provide R&D support, technical support and business development.

"Part of our core value proposition is to extend our customers' development teams and provide our expertise in IP communications to their existing development efforts," said Koichi Narasaki, president and CEO of IP Infusion. "The expansion of our global development team in India, one of the richest development regions in the world, supports this mission."

"The IP Infusion India team has already played a pivotal role in the development of products based on advanced technologies such as data center virtualization, GMPLS, MPLS-TP and software-defined networking," said Ravi Mittal, managing director, IP Infusion Software India Pvt. Ltd. "Additionally, the team will develop innovative and advanced networking solutions for our customers, reducing their product development effort and time."

[avinash2060]

Bangalore, May 31 (PTI):
EMC Corporation and Cisco today launched their 'Cloud Experience Centres' in the City.

This is a first-of-its-kind collaboration between two information technology (IT) industry leaders with the twin facilities located at the EMC Centre of Excellence and at the Cisco Globalization Centre East, creating a lab that provides Indian customers with an opportunity to experience the benefits and reliability of cloud-based IT infrastructure.

The twin Centres aim to accelerate customers’ transition to an agile cloud-based infrastructure by enabling proof-of-concepts and helping them experience innovative solutions to some of their critical business challenges, a statement here said.

Manoj Chugh, President, EMC India and SAARC, said: "While Cloud Computing is a huge buzzword in technology, adoption is taking its time as CIOs are seeking the reassurance that cloud computing infrastructures are reliable, scalable, and secure.

"The labs established in Bangalore by EMC and Cisco is a live test bed for customers to come in and validate their business cases in a live environment", he said.

Elaborating on the joint initiative, Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, Cisco India & SAARC said, "Our approach to cloud computing is to maximize customer choice and industry innovation, so our partnership with EMC reinforces our commitment to help customers accelerate adoption of this phenomenal trend in IT."

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...computing.html

[avinash2060]

Bangalore, June 2 (DHNS)

The Bosch Group will be launching the ''Bosch InterCampus programme'' with an investment of Rs 300 crore and will expand its support to higher education funding, as part of its Global Anniversary CSR initiative.

Over the next 10 years, the initiative will support universities and research projects in India, China, Germany and the US. It aims to enhance the research environment for university undergraduate students and scientists, thereby, accelerating progress in the fields of energy, environment and mobility.

The intercampus programme in India will receive Rs 140 crore which represents the lion’s share of the budget. As part of the 10-year development project, an independent “Robert Bosch IISc Centre for Research in Cyber Physical Systems” will be set up at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Professor K Chattopadhyay, Chairman, Department of Mechanical Sciences, IISc, said the InterCampus programme was a significant initiative from the corporate world, contributing to the urgent need of funding research for a greener, cleaner and efficient way of life.

He further said that this was the second biggest philanthropic investment at the IISc after JRD Tata’s initial investment.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...140-crore.html

[gentem]

Bangalore scientists sweep DRDO awards
TNN | Jun 3, 2011, 11.59pm IST

BANGALORE: Bangalore has done it again in defence. A good number of scientists from top DRDO labs in the city has bagged the national DRDO awards (2010) for outstanding contribution.

The awards were given away by defence minister AK Antony on Friday in New Delhi.

THE AWARDEES

Agni awards for excellence in self-reliance were bagged by A K Singh (LRDE) and M Z Siddique (GTRE); Performance excellence awards for performance and contribution was given to P S Krishnan and team, ADE; DRDO scientist of the year awards were bagged by Dipti Deodhare (CAIR), Maheshwara Reddy (DARE), Padmavathi (ADA), P Sivakumar (CVRDE, Chennai), K S Premavalli (DFRL Mysore) and M S Easwaran (CABS Bangalore).

Defence Food Research Laboratory (DFRL), Mysore, has bagged the defence technology spin-off award for developing physiologically active food, aloe vera juice, aloe vera-based fruit spread, seabuckthorn-based herbal tea and baked food, rhodiola-based coffee for combating diabetes, colon cancer and other stress-related disorders and diseases.

The best popular science communication award was given to R Raveendran, CVRDE, Avadi and his team.

[HedonistAtBlr]

Rs 120-cr advanced nano technology lab soon in Bangalore

BANGALORE, JUNE 3:
The Central Manufacturing Technology Institute (CMTI) to facilitate industry focused research and development (R&D) and technology development is constructing Rs 120 crore Advanced Nano Technology Laboratory (NMTC) in Bangalore.

Also CMTI to build human resources for advanced manufacturing technologies it is setting up a Rs 20-crore Academy of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AEAMT).

CENTRAL AID

The foundation for both the buildings was laid by the Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Mr Anand Sharma, at CMTI premises.

The NMTC lab and AEAMT are funded under the 11th Five Year Plan by the Union Government's Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

MACHINE TOOL FACILITY

The minister also inaugurated the Advanced Machine Tool Testing Facility (AMTTF) at CMTI at a cost of Rs 10 crore.

“This project is public-private partnership initiative between DIPP, CMTI, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association and with equity participation from the stake holders,” said Mr B.R. Satyan, Director, CMTI.

On the occasion, the Union Commerce Minister dedicated two advanced technology systems at NMTC laboratory – a Rs-6 crore direct metal deposition (DMD) system and Femto laser machining centre procured at a cost of Rs 3.8 crore. According to Mr Satyan, the two equipment will be used for industry focused research and development and technology development.

HR INITIATIVE

Talking about AEAMT, Mr Satyan said this is a focussed human resources initiative with the objective of generating qualified human resources in advanced manufacturing technologies to meet the requirement of ‘job ready engineers' in the machine tool sector.

Source

[engineer.akash]

Yaskawa, L&T reaffirm commitment to serve Indian industry

Announcement / Corporate June 03, 2011, 18:46 IST

Buoyed by the success of its AC drives which are being promoted by Electrical & Automation (E&A) business of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) in the Indian market, Yaskawa Electric Corporation of Japan has commenced manufacturing these drives and servo products in Bangalore. The facility, set up under the supervision of Japanese technical experts, will produce 40,000 units of new generation AC Drives a year. The 55,000 sq. ft. facility with four manufacturing lines will offer employment to local talent and have a workforce of 100 employees by March 2012.

At a function held at L&T's Automation Campus, Navi Mumbai to commemorate the commencement of production in India, Mr. Michihiko Zenke, Associate Director, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Japan handed over the first India-manufactured unit of AC drive to Mr. P. K. Bajaj, Vice President and Mr. V.K. Arora, General Manager of E&A.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Zenke said, "L&T and Yaskawa are partners for nearly three decades for providing automation solutions to Indian customers. Indian market is important for Yaskawa, however, our association with L&T is even more important." He further added, "Yaskawa's manufacturing unit in Bangalore will help customers with shortened delivery cycles and meet diversified user demands with product features suited for the Indian environment."
L&T provides motion control solutions using Yaskawa products to process plants, manufacturing plants, buildings and various industrial machinery sectors. The success of their strong association has resulted in the setting up a manufacturing unit in Bangalore for meeting the increased demand for motion control products in India which is a step towards staying closer to customers and reinforcing Yaskawa-L&T's long term commitment to serve the Indian market.

Yaskawa drives will continue to be supplied to customers through L&T's systems integration facility at Navi Mumbai as well as its wide network of more than 600 channel partners across the country.

Yaskawa Electric Corporation, Japan incorporated in 1915 is a global leader in manufacturing and supply of motion control products worldwide.

Business Standard

3M India to ramp up R&D, double headcount

American multinational conglomerate 3M Co, formerly Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, will step up its research & development efforts in India as part of its strategy to develop new products for the Indian market, according to Ajay Nanavati, managing director, 3M India.

3M, best known as the maker of Scotch Tape and Post-it, produces a wide range of products from adhesives to optical films.

“We plan to more than double our headcount in R&D to 200 in two years,” Nanavati said. The company has a R&D centre each in Bangalore, where the company is headquartered, and Gurgaon. 3M India is expanding its operations at the Bangalore centre aimed at creating new products. “So far the stress has been on technical service, which includes listening to customers on shop floors and taking their feedback, but now we’ll significantly scale up our efforts on product development,” he said.

3M India filed 14 global patents and had 23 product innovations in 2010. Nanavati refrained from saying how many more patents the company hopes to file in the next two years.

3M India has over the last three years spent Rs200 crore on R&D. “As a thumb rule, we spend about 2.5% of our revenues annually on R&D and that will continue,” he said.

For the year ended March 31, 3M India’s topline rose 31% from the previous year to Rs1,176 crore and net profit stood at ¤99 crore, a 23.3% increase. About 30% of the revenues come from products developed in the last five years.

Nanavati said research efforts will be geared towards developing products for the Indian market rather than for exports, which form just 2% of 3M India’s business.

Parent company 3M, which turned over $26.7 billion in 2010, has over 60,000 products in its portfolio worldwide and is present in over 60 countries and opened shop in India in 1988. 3M India has about 7,000 products.

Industrial & transportation is the company’s biggest segment, accounting for nearly half its overall business, followed by safety & security and display & graphics at 15% each, healthcare at 14%, consumer & office at 8% and others at 2%.

“We see our consumer business gathering momentum this year,” Nanavati said, adding that 3M India is also venturing to new segments like adhesives and tapes for solar cells.

In an interview to DNA in 2009, he said 3M India hopes to be a billion dollar company in five years.

3M India has lined up a spend of Rs100 crore this fiscal, most of which will be for capacity expansion at its plants at Ranjangaon near Pune.

DNA

[avinash2060]

[avinash2060]

Bangalore: Infosys Technologies has acquired the software solutions business of New Zealand-based Gen-i for NZ$5 million (Rs 44 crore).Gen-i is part of the Telecom New Zealand Group.
The partnership is expected to add revenue of NZ$12 million for the current financial year.We expect the deal to close by July 1,2011, V Balakrishnan,CFO of Infosys said.
Infosys has offered positions to Gen-i's more than 110 employees and contractors.These employees will continue to be based in Auckland,Wellington and Christchurch.The employee base includes senior developers,technical architects and consultants.This will take Infosys' New Zealand team to over 150 people.The company also plans to immediately hire an additional 15-30 people.
Infosys also announced that its current software solutions management team will lead the New Zealand delivery for Infosys,with Patrick Kouwenhoven appointed to run the New Zealand operations under the leadership of Ashok Mysore,associate VP,Infosys.
The companies will offer IT services like IT consulting,business transformation and cloud-based offerings to companies in Australia,New Zealand,the island of New Guinea and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean.
There has been a lot of consolidation in the IT services market recently,leaving an opportunity for a strong local partnership which can deliver world class capabilities in hosted and integrated ICT solutions, Gen-i Australasia CEO Chris Quin said.

http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/...=&publabel=TOI

[avinash2060]

Bangalore, June 14,DHNS:

MindTree Limited announced the launch of Automatic Traffic Counting & Classification (ATCC) system to conduct an around-the-clock traffic pattern study for single/intermediate/2 lane roads.

The system is designed to address key challenges faced in deployment of traditional sensor-based counting and classification systems like portability, accuracy and availability of evidence for audit.

ATCC is video-based solution that provides high accuracy in real time vehicle counting and classification. Data collected is tamper proof ensuring that reports cannot be deleted, modified or altered by any use

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...-mindtree.html

[HedonistAtBlr]

Huawei to invest $150 mn on Bangalore R&D unit

This will be the first company-owned research facility outside China.

Chinese telecom equipment maker Huawei Technologies will invest $120-$150 million to set up its own R&D campus in Whitefield, Bangalore — the first company-owned research facility outside China. Work at the proposed site will start mid-July and the campus is expected to be ready by early 2013.

“Even though, we have R&D centres in countries like Sweden, UK, Italy, Turkey and the US, but we operate out of leased or rented premises. India will be the first country outside China, where we will be having our own campus accommodating the largest number of R&D engineers outside China,” said a company official.
According to highly-placed sources in the company, Huawei has already acquired about 20 acres in the Whitefield area of the city and has also obtained no objection certificates (NOCs) from several government departments including environment, aviation, water supply, electricity, pollution control and fire safety. “Work is in full swing for the laying of the foundation next month,” the sources said.

The campus will have one million square feet of built-up area that would accommodate 3,500-4,000 people. Huawei India has around 6,000 employees, of which 2,200 are engaged in R&D. The company’s R&D operations in India are located across three centres in Bangalore. Once complete, the company intends to consolidate its R&D operations in India out of its Whitefield campus. Globally, Huawei employs around 110,000 staff, 46 per cent of whom are R&D professionals. China has the biggest population of Huawei’s R&D engineers, around 40,000.

The R&D centre in India is engaged in developing platforms and middleware that cover applications and functionalities of most of its products. The centre also develops software for networking and enterprise solutions for its other businesses, like set-top boxes and mobile handsets. India is also a huge market for Huawei and the company continues to be the number one player in the telecom network equipment space. The company has reported revenues of $1.6 billion in 2010.

Recently, India’s second largest IT services company, Infosys had announced investing $125-150 million in setting up its own campus in Shanghai, China. Once complete, the Shanghai campus will be Infosys’ first company-owned campus outside India.

[engineer.akash]

Tata Technologies opens a global engineering centre in Bangalore

BANGALORE: Tata Technologies, a global leader in engineering services outsourcing and manufacturing enterprise IT , today announced the opening of its new global engineering centre here.

The new centre has been envisioned to cater to the company's growing global portfolio of clients in the automotive, aerospace and construction/heavy engineering verticals, engaging high-end engineering talent available here, the company said in a statement.

"While we have been active here for the last few years, we want to significantly ramp-up in Bangalore, keeping in mind the large pool of qualified engineering and IT professionals who prefer living and working in Bangalore", Tata Technologies President (Global Delivery) Gopinath Jayaraj said.

BEML and Alenia Aeronautica sign MoU to develop Basic Trainer aircraft

[engineer.akash]

Karnataka extends tax concessions to Toyota's second car plant

BANGALORE: The Karnataka government on Thursday extended tax concessions to the Japanese auto joint venture Toyota-Kirloskar Motor Ltd ( TKML )) for its second car plant at Bidadi in the state.

"The cabinet has decided to give Rs 9 crore tax relief to the Toyota joint venture on import of tools and machinery valued at Rs 450 crore. With this, cumulative tax concessions extended to the company during the last two years will be Rs 89 crore," state cabinet minister V.S. Acharya told reporters here.

The state government granted Rs 80 crore tax concession in 2009 when Toyota started constructing its second plant to roll out luxury cars for the Indian market.

"Toyota has committed to invest Rs.4,043 crore in its second plant to manufacture Etios car in hatchback and sedan versions, with an installed capacity of 70,000 units per annum," Acharya said.

The company, which rolled out Etios sedan in December 2010, is scheduled to launch its hatchback version Etios Liva June 27 in New Delhi.

In the first plant that was set up in 1998 with an installed capacity of 80,000 units per annum, the world's largest automaker manufactures the multi-utility vehicle Innova, sports utility vehicle Fortuner and sedan Corolla Altis.

Toyota's Indian subsidiary also imports Camry, Prado, Prius and Land Cruiser in the form of completely built units.

ET

[engineer.akash]

Bangalore develops next-gen tech for us: Momentive CEO

BANGALORE: The US-based specialty chemicals and materials major Momentive Performance Materials has just invested $4 million to move into a new state-of-art R&D facility in Bangalore. The $7.5-billion revenue company, which globally competes with the likes of DuPont and Dow Chemicals, also sees India as a huge market opportunity. The company offers a range of products such as silicones, ceramics, adhesives and resins used across sectors like aviation, construction and automobiles.

In an interview with TOI, Craig Morrison, CEO of Momentive, discusses his plans for India and plays soothsayer in predicting what lays ahead for the company.

Can you elaborate on your new investment in India?

Located in Electronics City, this new 200-seater facility will initially house 125 scientists. The R&D efforts are not just to cater to the Indian markets, but we also plan to take these products to the world. Bangalore is now the regional headquarters for our operations in south Asia as well as the Middle East and Africa.

Globally Momentive has seven global R&D centres. How strategic is the Indian unit?

We have development centres across the world including US, China, Germany and India. However, what is unique in Bangalore is that this is the only centre developing next generation technologies. For example, we have been working on nanotechnology here that is incorporated in some of our downstream products, and we are also developing modified silicones etc. Bangalore specializes in the area of exploration of newer spaces to enter and works in the product conceptualization stage. The other centres take on new technology that either comes internally from Bangalore or externally from universities and build those into specific functionalities. Thus they are product focused, for example, making rubber products for engines etc.

Bangalore thus plays the role of building base platforms of capabilities that the other technology centres take and develop into very specific applications.

Is there sufficient talent in India?

Bangalore is not about cost arbitrage as we have the finest set of global talent pool in India. A lot of the scientists come from premier institutes in India and abroad and are world class in their intellectual capabilities. Bangalore also leads in patent filings in advanced technology.

How do you view the market opportunity in India?

India is an ideal market as our offerings are broad-based and India's rapid economic growth means that the opportunities are also huge. For instance, there are very few markets where the auto sector is growing at 25%. Moreover healthcare, energy, personal care items, construction etc, all of them are huge markets for us. India is an integral part of our strategy to boost revenues from emerging geographies to 40% (of total revenues) in the next few years from the current 30%. India is currently a $100-million market for us that will grow to $250 million over the next 4-5 years. However, most of the offerings are today imported and therefore we are looking to boost our manufacturing capability here.

Can you elaborate on your manufacturing initiatives in India?

We sell a lot of products in India, 60% of which are silicone materials. We have invested $20 million in our manufacturing plant in Chennai. This plant is now in its second phase of expansion and will boost our local production of silicone materials. You would probably touch the products that use our technology about 100-200 times a day. Cushions, beddings, mobile phones, electronics, keyboards, skin care formulations, textiles etc use silicon material. However, now we are looking to locally manufacture other technologies like epoxy (used for infusing mechanical strength, heat resistance) and phenolic (used for binding, laminating) in India through joint ventures and acquisitions.

(With inputs from Punya Poonacha)

TOI


Lava to invest INR 1 bln in R&D this year

Thursday 30 June 2011 | 12:53 CET

Indian mobile phone maker Lava International plans to invest about INR 1 billion this year to ramp up its R&D capacities, reports the PTI. Co-founder and director S N Rai said that this expansion would be funded through internal accruals, but declined to give further details. The company has R&D facilities in Bangalore and China. Lava plans to add another 7-8 handsets in the next few months. The company is eyeing revenues of INR 15 billion this fiscal.

[avinash2060]

Isro is creating an artificial moonscape in Bengaluru to test its Chandrayaan rover. The Moon surface, being laid out at the new facility of the Isro Satellite Centre, will be complete with lunar ambience, including a terrain with the same mineralogical character.

Sources said rocks with mineralogical characteristics similar to those on Moon surface were found in Anantpur in Andhra Pradesh and Salem in Tamil Nadu. The search was done with the help of Geological Survey of India (GSI).

Sources told Deccan Chronicle that Isro scientists preferred Salem rocks to those found on Andhra geography. “They will be pulverised and spread inside the lab”, said the source. “The indigenous rover, a first of its kind attempt, will be run on this terrain to carry out a series of tests”. “We are using special type of balloons inside the test bed to create an effect of the lunar gravity on the rover”, said source. “These balloons will ensure that the pull experienced on rover will be 1/5th of earth’s gravity.’’

The artificial moonscape will be a 15 sq mt facility complete with temperature vagaries experienced on Moon’s surface. “We will be mainly testing command and control systems as well as sample collection manouevres here”, sources said. Isro is planning a dual command system to control the rover, a 15-kg machine with its own intelligence, on lunar surface. “There will be three components to Chandrayaan-II viz., an orbiter, a lander and rover,” said the source. “The lander with the rover will separate from the orbiter and once it lands on the lunarscape, the rover will roll out. We will be able to control it from earth by beaming instructions from the orbiter as well as the lander.”

The lander is being developed by Russia. Isro will transport the rover to Russia to be integrated with the lander once the trial run is over. The unit will be then brought back to India and integrated with the Chandrayaan-II. Isro is now looking at a launch date in 2013-14.

http://www.deccanchronicle.com/chann...aluru-soon-947

[engineer.akash]

Two Nanotech firms to set up manufacturing units in Bangalore

Focusing on nanotechnology, two companies — one from Noida and the other from US — will set up its manufacturing units in Bangalore. On Tuesday, MN Vidyashankar, principal secretary to Karnataka government (department of information technology, biotechnology and science and technology), said that about two million nanotechnology-related jobs will be created globally by 2015.

“Bangalore Nano is a platform to tap the talent in this emerging field and explore new opportunities," he said.

The Nano industry is globally valued at $1.6 trillion with a 50% cumulative average growth between 2009 and 2013. Asia recorded the highest growth at 32%, followed by Europe with 28% and North America with 25%.

Professor CNR Rao, scientific advisor to the prime minister, said the magnitude of what nanotechnology can do has not yet been acknowledged in India.

“President Obama recently gave a grant of $120 million for research on hydrogen energy using nanotechnology. Countries like US and China are investing heavily in this technology. India too needs to take a cue from them on this front,” he said, adding that there is a tremendous opportunity in the field, particularly in the areas of water purification and energy. The state government, in partnership with Vision Group, plans to build a Nano institute in the city outskirts. A Nano Park adjacent to the institute will contain an incubation centre.

The government will organise the fourth edition of Bangalore Nano on December 8 and 9. The event aims to bridge the gap between industry and research and offer more opportunities to young scientists and researchers in nanotechnology.

DNA

[naveen_blr]

NEW DELHI: IT firm Tech Mahindra on Thursday said it has bagged a contract from technological giant Microsoft to setup a Lab for video encoders used in deployment of IPTV solutions on latter's mediaroom.

"Tech Mahindra has been selected by Microsoft to setup an authorised Encoder Conformance Testing Lab ( ECT Lab )) for video encoders used in deployment of IPTV solutions on Microsoft Mediaroom based platforms," IT firm said in a statement.

However, the company did not disclose the financial details of the deal.

The Microsoft Mediaroom platform ecosystem includes real-time encoders, transcoders, user client and other integrated software components that enables delivery of multimedia content over an IP network.

Tech Mahindra has set up a test lab in collaboration with Microsoft at its Bangalore facility for this activity. Encoders from OEMs across the globe will be tested and qualified against the conformance parameters set by Microsoft for the Mediaroom platform.
"This initiative will drive Microsoft Mediaroom ecosystem partners to offer feature rich products and service," Tech Mahindra IT Services President L Ravichandran said.

[avinash2060]

Bangalore To Become Hub With 5 Projects

Prashanth G N | TNN

Bangalore: The IT City will also be nano city sometime soon.And you may even be driving in cars running on nano sensors.The car will tell you when to apply brakes.
While work has begun on the Rs 100-crore Institute of Nano Science and Technology,plans are ready to unveil a nano park at Devanahalli.This apart,the city will boast of three other nano labs,one of which has come up,and two in the process.
The institute is being built at Shivapura on Bangalore-Tumkur Road on 15 acres.This will be one among three institutes planned in the country the two others being at Kolkata and Mohali.A sum of Rs 100 crore has been allotted to the institute as part of a Rs 1,000-crore nano science and technology initiative announced by the department of science and technology last year.
The institute will be industry-driven with focus on applications.It will have an R&D structure that is translatable into products that can be commercialized.While basic research in nano science will also be taken up,the centre will basically be oriented towards industry, IT/BT secretary M N Vidyashankar told TOI.
Research work at the centre has begun at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR ) under scientist C N R Raos guidance.Faculty of 12,a few researchers and engineers will be hired in the first phase.
A nano park is also coming up at Devanahalli itll have nano companies,fabrication facilities,conferencing and exhibition area.Fourteen acres have been allotted.We have given Rs 30 crore for nano park development, Vidyashankar said.
Apart from these two major projects,three nano labs are being set up in the city two at JNCASR and one at IISc which takes the number of nano centres to five.While one nano lab has already taken off at JNCASR,another one is getting ready on one acre just around the campus.
At IISc,the largest nano fabrication facility is coming up covering an area of 14,000 sq feet.A centre for excellence in nano science has been set up and scientists from mechanical engineering,electronics and electrical and physics are involved in different aspects of basic and applied nano research at IISc.

What is nano

Nano generally means tiny relating to molecules,atoms anything that is smaller than a micrometre

What is nanotechnology

Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the molecular level in scales smaller than 1 micrometre,normally 1 to 100 nanometres,and the fabrication of devices within that size range.

How will it help society

Help in clean water supply through detection of foreign material Atomically engineered food and crops may result in greater agricultural productivity Enhance nutrition of smart foods Cheap and powerful energy generation Clean and highly efficient manufacturing Improved formulation of drugs,diagnostics and organ replacement Greater information storage and communication


LEARNING WITH TECH: Bangalore can soon boast of another sobriquet,nano hub,thanks to an institute of nano technology,a nano park and three laboratories

http://lite.epaper.timesofindia.com/...=&publabel=TOI

[engineer.akash]

City to get first BioTech Park

BANGALORE: After a spate of Information Technology Parks, Namma Bengaluru is now all set to get a BioTech Park Bangalore Helix soon. American based Alexandria Real Estate Equities, will initiate the project on July 11, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa announced on Wednesday.

Pipped to be one of the biggest such parks in the country, Principal Secretary, Department of IT/BT, Vidyashankar said that the company had been given a 60year lease on the land. Speaking after an award presentation by The Vision Group on Science and Technology (VGST) at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Yeddyurappa shared that the park, which would be developed in two phases, would take 18 months to complete and `500 crores would be invested initially. The park which is expected to cover a total of 109 acres (both phases), would initially cover nearly 1.5 million square feet on 59 acres of land and later another 3 million square feet will be covered, taking the total to 4.5 million square feet.

His announcement comes after the Chairman of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Prof C N R Rao's words seeking more importance for infrastructure in science institutions. Yeddyurappa, in a rather jovial fashion said, "The government treasury is full and should be utilised efficiently." Expecting misinterpretation, he clarified that the treasury was not overflowing, but funds and support for science was readily available.
The CM also agreed to take cognizance of the recommendations submitted by Prof Rao and VGST, he said that the government would implement the same. "One acre of land, currently held by Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Rural Energy, would be given to JNCASR on lease for the purpose of setting up a Nano laboratory", he said. 76 researchers, teachers and institutions were given awards for their contribution towards the promotion of science and related activities.

BT ‘knowledge park' on the horizon

A proposed ‘knowledge park' dedicated to biotechnology and related industries is closer to execution with the foundation stone laying ceremony scheduled for July 11 in Chitradurga.

Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Wednesday said real estate developer Alexandria Equities had invested Rs. 500 crore in the project. In the first phase of construction, 59 acres will be developed on the vast 4,250-acre land granted to several science institutions, including the DRDO, in Chitradurga.

Mr. Yeddyurappa was speaking at the awards ceremony of the Vision Group on Science and Technology (VGST), where he conferred grants and awards on scientists and science institutions for 2010-11.

Grants

The awards, with prize money or grants, ranging from Rs. 25,000 to Rs. 20 lakh, aim to catalyse quality research and to reward outstanding researchers and science communicators.

The awards were given in six categories: seed money to young scientists for research; awards for research publication by science faculty; awards for science teachers and science communicators; institutional grants for centres of excellence in science, engineering and medicine; and grants for centres of innovative science education.

The final category comprises the Karnataka Fund for Infrastructural Strengthening in Science and Technology (K-FIST), which aims to aid institutes of higher education to develop infrastructure.

Eight young scientists were awarded a grant of Rs. 10 lakh each and five individuals were awarded for innovative teaching (Rs. 50,000 each). Awards for research publication (Rs. 25,000) were presented to eight science faculty.

Five centres of excellence in science, engineering and medicine were awarded research grants of Rs. 20 lakh each; and a grant of Rs. 10 lakh each awarded to 10 centres of innovative science education.

Awards

The K-FIST grant was awarded in two categories: Level I comprising a grant of Rs. 10 lakh each was given to 30 colleges and Level II comprising a grant of Rs. 20 lakh each was conferred on 10 colleges.

VGST, instituted by the Karnataka Government, recommends policy for the advancement of science and technology in the State.

The Hindu

Chitradurga Second Science hub of the state

Chitradurga or Bangalore where is it coming up?