Dow plans $100mn R&D facility near Pune

The Dow Chemical Company will be investing $100 million for a research and development (R&D) facility at Chakan near Pune. The R&D centre is likely to be fully functional by 2010.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Dow Chemical International Pvt. Ltd.'s India chief executive officer Vipul Shah and industry secretary V.K. Jairath.  Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and the company's international executive president Michael Gambrell were also present on the occasion.

The R&D facility will come up on 100 acre, employ 500 researchers among other staff, and would be the first R&D facility of Dow out of India.  The facility will carry out research in areas like water, building material, personal care, paints and coatings, plastic chemicals besides basic research in chemistry and chemical engineering.

The centre will serve multiple clients across the globe, and will accelerate the company's growth in the region by providing customer support, application development and specific problem-solving, Shah said.