India remains a strategic country for DuPont: Dr Rajeev A Vaidya

Established in India in 1994, DuPont, the US-based global chemical major, has come a long way. Today, it employs about 4,000 people who work collaboratively with Indian customers to find sustainable, innovative, market-driven solutions to solve some of the India’s biggest challenges, including ensuring adequate, safe and nutritious food, access to uninterrupted energy, building world class infrastructure and buildings, and protecting people, assets and the environment. In India, DuPont has four manufacturing plants - at Savli (Gujarat); Madurai (Tamil Nadu); Medchal, Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) and Sohna (Harayana) - and has established knowledge and innovation centres at Hyderabad and Pune, respectively.
 
To further strengthen its collaboration with Indian customers, in August 2013, the company announced ‘The Power of Shunya’, a new growth strategy for DuPont, which aims to develop sustainable solutions with zero negative impact on society. In this interview with Rakesh Rao, Dr Rajeev A Vaidya, President – South Asia & ASEAN, DuPont, acknowledges short-term uncertainties in the economy, but sounds optimist about long-term growth potential of India.
 
Recently, DuPont launched the 'Power of Shunya' campaign in India. What was the rationale behind this move?
In India, we believe that science has a vital role to play in addressing the aspirations and challenges facing our growing nation. India has a rich tradition of science. The concept of ‘Shunya’ was proposed by the Indian scientist Aryabhatta in the 5^th century and it revolutionised mathematics and science. In this series, we think of Shunya not as the smallest number but as an aspirational goal. The Power of Shunya is about zero darkness, zero malnutrition and hunger, zero lives lost in workplace accidents.
 
Zero is a goal close to core values in DuPont. Since our inception 211 years ago, we have been committed to zero injuries. This commitment to zero continues today with safety being one of our core values along with environmental stewardship, highest ethical behaviour and respect for people. Our commitment to Zero motivates us to relentlessly strive to achieve zero deviations from our core values. The Power of Shunya series highlights success stories of individuals and enterprises who have and are in the process of successfully bringing forth science powered solutions that make a positive difference in people’s lives in India.
 
ALSO READ: DuPont India launches The Power of Shunya

By featuring these successes, we want to:

• Build a sense of pride in our countries rich science and innovation heritage.
• Build confidence that science powered solutions can help sustainable growth in our country.
• Inspire people with zero is an aspirational goal, to do more and achieve more

With our growing innovation capability in India, we welcome the opportunity to be innovation partners with local companies aspiring to contribute to sustainable growth and development in the country.
 
Are you currently working with any Indian research institutes?
We address our science to solve some of the big challenges that face us, like providing food, energy and protection to 9 billion people in the world. But these challenges are so large that no one company or organisation can solve them alone. Collaboration is the key that unlocks the answers that science provides and helps bring it to market.
 
DuPont India works in collaboration with academia, customers, industry partners, the government, civil society and the entire value chain across diverse industry segments. We are constantly seeking like-minded institutions, companies and customers to work with us and help develop solutions based on our science-powered innovation ability for India.
 
Which areas/sectors are the growth drivers for DuPont in India?
With increasing urbanisation, rapidly growing population, emerging middleclass, and one of the youngest workforce, India is faced with the growing challenges of ensuring adequate, safe and nutritious food, access to uninterrupted energy and world class infrastructure and protecting its people, assets and the environment.
 
DuPont science has the ability to address many of these challenges through our agri-products and solutions, advanced polymers & materials and industrial biosciences. Our growth focus is on agriculture, food and nutrition, infrastructure, energy, transportation, safety and protection, other related areas.
 
ALSO READ: DuPont expands capabilities at Hyderabad's centre

Is the current slowdown in the Indian market having an impact on DuPont?
The Indian marketplace offers incredible opportunities for DuPont to leverage science & technology through a collaborative approach for innovative market driven solutions. We strongly believe that while there are short term uncertainties, the long term growth potential in India remains strong.
 
Automotive sector is going through a rough patch in last few months. Has it affected your engineering plastics business?
DuPont, with a long and rich history with the auto industry, is committed to support the needs of Indian automotive market. In the early 1900s – when one could count the number of vehicles on the road in the realm of hundreds, and not hundreds of millions – DuPont worked with the automotive industry to develop artificial leather and fast-drying paint. Later, we developed new material families still used today to help make vehicles that are more efficient, safer and fun to drive.
 
DuPont is working with Indian auto industry to reduce weight of vehicles, improve their performance, and enhance comfort, design and safety of the vehicles.
 
Automotive segment remains a strong growth focus. Our performance polymers business recently opened a new application development center focused on automotive segment, among others, and we continue to strengthen our collaborations with Indian auto companies though our programs at the DuPont India Innovation Center at Pune.
 
What are your expectation from India in 2013 and beyond?
India is one of the fastest growing markets for DuPont and remains a strategic country for our company. Though there is short-term volatility, we believe that long-term growth potential of India remains strong and, therefore, we continue to expand our presence there.