German automotive components maker, Bosch announced that it would invest Rs 1,200 crore at its Indian operations during 2014, mainly for expansion of existing facilities and setting up of new factory at Bidadi, about 35 kms from Bangalore.
The company also announced the opening of its new research and technology centre (RTC) in Bangalore, which will focus in the area of Internet of Things and Services (IoTS) among others.
“The planned investment for the year will be directed towards capacity expansion across Bosch India like building of new facilities, augmentation of existing production lines and Research and Development,” said Peter Tyroller, member of the board of management, Robert Bosch GmbH, responsible for Asia Pacific, here today.
The inauguration of the new Research & Technology Center (RTC) in Bangalore is a step in this direction, he said. Present only in four locations of Bosch worldwide, the RTC is part of the Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI), the largest software development centre of Bosch, outside Germany.
The research focus of RTC will be in the area of Internet of Things and Services (IoTS), System & Software Engineer-ing for engineering methods, data and cutting-edge technology areas of computer vision and image processing.
“Bosch believes that as early as 2015, more than six billion ‘things’ which include vehicles and smart phones as well as containers and machines will be connected to the internet, making the IoTS a reality. Entirely new services will emerge that will transform people’s everyday lives and open up new business opportunities,” Tyroller told reporters.
Keeping this long-term vision in mind, the RTC will focus on technologies for smart networking of devices and systems with enhanced reasoning and assistance capabilities. The technologies developed in the domain of IoTS also aim to address India centric challenges, as Bosch believes that the country can achieve a strategic edge by becoming an early adopter of IoTS systems, he said.
“In 2013, annual passenger car sales declined nearly 10 per cent, the first drop in demand for more than a decade in India. This downturn also reflected in the Bosch Group figures for India. In order to sustain profitable growth here, we have introduced measures like budget cuts in non-growth areas and we are concentrating on streamlining processes and structures in others,” Tyroller said.
Steffen Berns, regional president, Bosch Group in India said the investment would be across all its business verticals in India during the year 2014 that includes setting up of new manufacturing plant at Bidadi. Much of the investment will go into building new facilities as well as augmenting existing ones such as Adugodi site, which will be expanded to become an important R&D hub.
A portion of this capital expenditure will also be directed towards capacity expansion to enable increase in electronic control units the production.
