Agilent chief gives thumbs-up to Indian R&D

Agilent Technologies, a $5 billion measurement solutions provider, plans to ramp up its R&D presence in the country significantly in the next two years. On a visit to Bangalore to attend the company's annual technology day, William P (Bill) Sullivan, president and CEO, announced tripling the R&D headcount in the country from the present 150 to more than 450 by 2009.

Sullivan feels the distinction has been earned by the Indian R&D team, which has been delivering core and high-quality research works for the company globally in the testing measurement space. Besides, India as a market is recording double-digit growth, he said.

"India as a market might be very small for us at present, but it is quite promising. We want to be a part of that growth and have been investing significantly both in people and infrastructure and also extending our reach to customers in different locations across the country," he said.

The US-based company registered its presence in India as a separate entity after spinning off from HP in 1999. Globally, the company has over 50,000 customers of which 500 are located here, which includes leading names in the pharma, life science, drug discovery, food, chemicals and petrochemical industry. According to the company, all the top-30 pharmaceutical companies, including Dr Reddy's, Cipla and Ranbaxy, are its customers.

Sullivan said the company might also look at the possibility of acquiring a company in the life science and wireless sectors, to propel growth.

"During the last two years, we have made 14 acquisitions. We look for opportunities in different parts of the globe. If there are opportunities in India, we will look for that. Because we are present in 110 countries, we can manage team any where in the world," he added. The market opportunities for testing measurement tools globally is around $40 billion. The market in India at present is about $500 million and is growing by about 15 per cent year-on-year.

The company is also looking at opportunities in the nanotechnology sector. It will soon introduce nanotechnology measurement tools in India. "We feel that India is going to make investment in nanotechnology and we feel this will be a new area of opportunities for us in India," Sullivan added.

In India, the Agilent has sales and support offices in Delhi/Gurgaon, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore, while R&D centres in Gurgaon and Bangalore. The company has about 1,400 people across the sales and support, high-end engineering and engineering services and transaction processing.