Motorola opens research lab in India
Indo-Asian News Service
Bangalore, April 7, 2005
Global communications leader Motorola has set up an applied research laboratory in Bangalore, the company said on Thursday.
The Motorola Labs India, which is the company's 11th such facility worldwide, will conduct applied research in converged networks, autonomic networking, enterprise applications and embedded systems and physical sciences.
"The research activities will be in line with our vision of seamless mobility, uninterrupted access to information, entertainment, communication, monitoring and control," Motorola's chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior said.
Though the telecom major declined to specify the investment, it said substantial funds would be made available from the Rs 3 billion it had budgeted for its software research and development (R&D) in India.
"We are initially hiring about 50 people, including PhD scientists and high-end technologists to undertake research projects and create intellectual properties for our global R&D organisation," Warrier said.
The $31.3 billion Motorola will be investing $3.5 billion in R&D activities in the current year.
"With access to best-of-class scientific and engineering talent and the ability to collaborate with reputed universities and institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institute of Science, we believe India is an ideal place for applied research and software development," Warrier added.
The company's other research laboratories are located in the US, Britain, France, China and Japan, employing about 1,000 scientists and technologists.
Motorola vice-president for South-East Asia Amir Sharma said the company would be investing $17 million and hiring about 500 people annually to ramp up its Indian operations.
"Since our inception in 1991, we have so far invested about $150 million, including $50 million in 2002. In the next two-three years, we plan to invest another $50 million to expand our operations and double our headcount from the current 2,000," Sharma said.
About 40 per cent of software products that go into the latest mobile handsets are being developed in India.
Motorola also plans to introduce low-cost mobile devices and solutions in India next year and use them as a test-bed for other developing nations.
© HT Media Ltd. 2004.