The Hindu Business Line : Samsung India to take up CTV designing

IN order to customise products to meet the tastes and requirements of the Indian consumer, Samsung India's research and development (R&D) centre is set to take up colour television (CTV) design later this year.

"We will be investing about $5 million (Rs 23 crore) in R&D in 2004, when we go into the designing of CTVs in India as well. Samsung's R&D investments in India so far stand at about $12 million," a Samsung official said. The company intends to invest an additional $15 million this year in manufacturing.

The expansion of its R&D operations will also result in Samsung increasing its workforce. "Manpower at our India R&D Centre is around 150, which will be increased to 290 by the end of the year," the official said.

Samsung's recently set up R&D centre in Noida supports the Indian CTV operations in terms of hardware and the visual display division of the parent company in terms of software applications for conventional, projection, plasma and LCD televisions. The centre also carries out R&D for Samsung's home appliances division, for refrigerators and washing machines.

Meanwhile, the additional investment of $15 million in manufacturing this year will be primarily made towards expanding the CTV line capacity from the existing 1.5 million units per annum to 1.8 million units. It would also include investments in the home appliances product categories.

With the inclusion of the refrigerator plant last year, Samsung's total investment in India by end-2003 stood at $111 million.

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