French telecom giant Alcatel will invest up to 500 million euro ($596.6) in India over the next four years and take headcount at its research and development facilities to 2,000."Alcatel will invest 400 to 500 million euro in India in next three to four years," Dayanidhi Maran, minister of communications and IT, said after the inauguration of GSM mobile phone equipment manufacturing facility at Mankapur unit of ITI in Gonda district of the state.The investments by Alcatel in India will be in manufacturing, research and development and allied activities.Alcatel currently has 750 engineers in India working on new technologies. "By end of this year or early next year we will have 2,000 people in India engaged in development efforts," Serge Tchuruk, chairman and chief executive officer of Alcatel's said after the inauguration of the manufacturing facility.Congress president and United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the facility.India will emerge as a major research and development base for Alcatel, which has 16,000 engineers worldwide engaged in developing new technologies for the world market. Tchuruk said the company's joint venture with C-dot for developing technologies around Wimax will be functional in Chennai this month end and would have close to 500 engineers. The GSM manufacturing at Mankapur could start only after Alcatel was convinced by Maran to transfer technology. The government is also in talks with Alcatel to transfer technology for DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) broadband access equipment.
