JCB too invests considerably in R&D and has a Design Centre at Pune with over 300 engineers. "It is also JCB's largest Design Center outside of the United Kingdom. This facility was inaugurated in 2014 and is currently in the middle of some very exciting action in terms of new products development," informed Singh.
Simultaneously, India is being looked at the destination for R&D centres by the multinational companies. "This positive sign of growth present an important and significant opportunity for multinational organisations across the globe due to the intellectual capital available in the country. That is the reason why Schneider has chosen India (Bangalore) as one of its global centre for R&D," Phatak said. "We see a lot of global corporations setting up applied research centres in India-a significant cluster being around Bengaluru," said Verma. Toshiba has established a R&D division within Toshiba Software India Pvt. Ltd. (TSIP), Bangalore which is in charge for data analysis technology. "The team in India is in charge of the R&D of analyzing algorithm with support of the data supplements from the potential customers," informed Okada.
Henkel is another company that has established an Innovation Centre inIndia. "We have a state-of-the-art Innovation Centre in Pune, which as a part of our global innovation focus, partners with our customers in India solve some of industries' biggest design, efficiency and reliability challenges. One of the products developed by the center is Loctite PC 7000, a high temperature abrasion resistant, which is used for protecting components against abrasion up to 1100°C," noted Shah.
Role of the government
Apart from the boost from various factors, the Indian manufacturing industry has also gained encouragement and guidance from the Government of India. The Make in India initiative is inspiring the companies to be innovative. "Since the launch of ‘Make in India' initiative, investments by multi- national companies in India have increased, as these companies see the potential that exists in the country. The newly launched ‘Skill India' and ‘Digital India' schemes shall further transform the nation into an innovation and manufacturing hub, supplementing the ‘Make in India' initiative. Therefore, innovation will play a key role in the success of ‘Make in India'," Shah hoped.
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