Bosch, a leading global supplier of technology and
services, has inaugurated a Research & Technology Centre in India and
announced a planned investment of Rs.1200 Crores for 2014 in the country.
“India continues to play a pivotal role for the Bosch Group, and we are
committed to expanding and strengthening our already broad-based footprint in
the country in the years to come despite the prevalent economic situation,”
stated Peter Tyroller, member of the board of management, Robert Bosch GmbH,
responsible for Asia Pacific at a press meet in Bangalore.
The planned investment for the year will be directed
towards capacity expansion across Bosch India like building of new facilities,
augmentation of existing production lines and research & development. The
inauguration of the new Research & Technology Centre (RTC) in Bangalore is
a step in this direction.
Present only in four other international Bosch locations,
this prestigious high-end innovation centre in India is part of Robert Bosch
Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) – the largest software development centre
of Bosch, outside Germany. It aims to engage with the finest academic research
community and work with some of the best technical talent pool in India.
The research focus of RTC will be in the area of Internet
of Things and Services (IoTS), System & Software Engineering for
engineering methods, data and cutting-edge technology areas of computer vision
and image processing. Bosch believes that as early as 2015, more than six
billion ‘things’ which include vehicles and smart phones as well as containers
and machines will be connected to the internet, making the IoTS a reality.
Entirely new services will emerge that will transform people’s everyday lives
and open up new business opportunities. Keeping this long term vision in mind,
the RTC will focus on technologies for smart networking of devices and systems
with enhanced reasoning and assistance capabilities. The technologies developed
in the domain of IoTS also aim to address India centric challenges, as Bosch
believes that the country can achieve a strategic edge by becoming an early
adopter of IoTS systems.
India remains a region of opportunities but also with
challenges Commenting on the current economic situation in India, Tyroller
added: “Though the current economic environment poses challenges, we are
convinced that India’s consumption story remains positive and retain a bullish
outlook for our mid- and long-term growth prospects”. By 2020, as forecasted,
every second vehicle will be produced in the emerging markets and India would
be the 5th largest car manufacturer in the world.
During these testing times, adequate measures were taken
to retain profitability and competitiveness with effective cost rationalization
measures and optimum utilisation of resources. On the other hand, over the last
two years, Bosch strengthened its presence in India by setting up new
facilities in Verna (Goa), Chennai and Sanand (Ahmedabad) for its Packaging,
Electrical Drives and Drive & Control businesses respectively. The
relocation project of the manufacturing unit based at Adugodi, Bangalore to
Bidadi is currently in progress.