The Hindu : Business : Samsung to make India R&D hub

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 24, 2004

Business

Business

Samsung to make India R&D hub

NEW DELHI, NOV. 23. Samsung India Electronics today said it would double headcount at its two R&D centres to 2,000 engineers in the next three years.

"We will double the number of engineers working at the Bangalore and Noida R&D centres to 1,400 and 600 respectively," Samsung South West Asia President and CEO, K. S. Kim, said unveiling a slew of IT products.

The Indian arm of the Korean firm would also strengthen its IT business by introducing more products and establishing 600 retail counters.

With increased headcount, India would be the R&D hub for the company, he said declining to quantify the investment in the Indian operation.

Asked whether Samsung needed to enhance production capacity at its Noida plant, he said "the plant manufactures 6,000 colour televisions a day and posts 30 per cent rise in productivity every year. In any case, sales have to catch up with the 30 per cent increase in productivity."

Mr. Kim refrained from answering a query on the need to set up a manufacturing unit for mobile phones in India. Its rival LG is in the process of establishing a facility in Pune (Maharashtra) to make mobile phone handsets to leverage on the market, which is growing at an impressive rate. Mr. Kim said the 600 retail outlets across India, which would be a mix of different retail models like shopping malls and multi-branded stores, would come up by March 2005.

PTI

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