| Some of these investments will be in greenfield projects while the others will be for expansion of existing operations in India. Stating this, Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said German companies' interest in India was very high. |
| Giving details, he said auto component manufacturer Bosch Group was investing ¤ 500 million in manufacturing at Nasik and Bangalore and MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG would set up a manufacturing facility for trucks and buses at Pitampura in Madhya Pradesh for an investment of ¤300 million. |
| Siemens will invest ¤600 million on a manufacturing facility, while ABB is keen on participating in the 4,000 Mw ultra-mega power plant initiative. Passenger car giant BMW will also invest Rs 900 crore on a plant to be set up near Chennai. The facility will produce passenger cars. The project, Nath added, had been cleared in a record time of six months. Optical giant Carl Zeiss is also planning to set up an R&D facility. |
| Some other proposals were also discussed, including offers relating to printing of currency notes and identity cards, Union Minister of Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said. |
| In the BPO space, Deutsche Bank discussed plans for a global services centre. Companies like Kluber Lubricants, Burgmann, and LAPP also talked about their Indian plans. |
| "The German companies said they were happy to stay and expand in India. They unveiled their long-term plans and said that there was a huge opportunity to marry German leadership in technology with Indian skill sets and cost-effectiveness," Indian officials who attended the meeting added. |
| German trade fair company Hannover Messe sought space near Mumbai for setting up a joint-venture fair facility, Sibal added. A number of framework agreements are also in the works. |
| These include an MoU between German Railways (Deutsche Bahn) and Indian Railways that aims to explore the possibility of manufacturing units being set up in India for signaling equipment and rolling stock. |
| Two other agreements include one between ICMR and Helmholz for bio-medical co-operation and another between the Bureau of Indian Standards and its German counterpart. |
| New industrial policy soon |
| A new industrial policy that will promote reservation for SCs and STs will be put up for approval by the Union Cabinet in six weeks' time. |
| "This policy will aim towards all-inclusive growth. This obviously means SCs and STs. I intend to take it to the Cabinet in six weeks," Nath told reporters here. |
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