Modi, Merkel visit Bosch facility

Company plans to invest Rs 650 crores to further strengthen its presence in India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel today visited the facilities of German automotive major Bosch here, as part of the chancellor's three-day state visit to India, with focus on innovation and skills development.

To further strengthen its presence in India, Bosch said it plans to invest Rs 650 crores (over 100 million euros) in 2015.

During the nearly two-hour long visit, the two leaders, accompanied by a high-level German delegation, walked through the Bosch Innovation Center and the vocational training centre, enquiring about the company's research, engineering, and vocational education activities in India.

"Readying the ground force for 'Make in India'," Ministry of External Affairs Spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted as the two leaders went through the facility, where they were gifted the "lion", the logo of the 'Make in India' campaign.

"Preparing the next generation of technicians. Making the vision of Skill India a reality," Swarup said in his tweets during the visit of the two leaders, as they were briefed on on "Industrie 4.0 to Big Data" on solutions developed at Bosch India.

"Our commitment to developing talent and the competence of our local engineers are part of our success story in India," said Peter Tyroller, the member of the Bosch board of management responsible for Asia-Pacific.

He emphasized the significant contribution that Indian engineers have made to Bosch's success story in India, as well as to their current importance for the company's worldwide activities in many strategic areas such as data mining and smart manufacturing.

"India is a key location in our global innovation network. To further strengthen our presence in the country, we plan to invest INR 650 crores (over 100 million euros) in 2015," Tyroller added.