The Hindu Business Line : DuPont to make Hyderabad technical centre for India

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Hyderabad Feb. 14 DuPont has plans to make Hyderabad its `Technical Hub' for India. It has already lined up an investment of Rs 200 crore into the research and development (R&D) centre here.

The technology group now at Gurgaon, near Delhi will be moved to the R&D centre, which is expected to be ready by the middle of 2008. It is being constructed on a 15-acre leased land of the ICICI Knowledge Park. It will also house the molecular biology research for DuPont subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International.

Recruitment

By 2010, at least 500 scientists and engineers are expected to be recruited to undertake basic discovery research in core areas of DuPont. Most of the scientists and technical staff to be recruited will be from India, said Dr Homi Bhedwar, the newly appointed Director, R&D.

"We propose to have about 300 staff, predominantly consisting of scientists by the time the facilities are ready in 2008. Thereafter, we will double the strength. Indians in the other R&D centres of DuPont across the globe, willing to return would also be given priority," Dr Bhedwar, who had his last stint at the company's main R&D Centre in Wilmington, Delaware in the US told Business Line.

Agreeing that getting talented and committed researchers was a challenge in the Indian context at present, Dr Bhedwar felt that the brand DuPont should be able to attract talent. "We hope to provide the right scientific challenge and stimulating environment for researchers," he said.

Currently, the R&D work is being carried out from leased laboratory space from the ICICI Knowledge Park, which is incubating a range of pharma, biotech, materials, chemical and other research-driven initiatives on its sprawling campus on the outskirts of the city.

"We will not replicate DuPont R&D infrastructure features in the Hyderabad centre, but make it India-specific, keeping in view the needs here. We are confident of creating intellectual property and generate patents from the work here," Dr Bhedwar said.

DuPont is also open to collaborations with Indian institutes and universities to take up joint research projects. Already this model was in vogue with the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology here.

The centre will focus on "integrated science" - the addition of biology to traditional strengths in chemistry and materials science - to develop the company's application pipeline in the country and other emerging markets. The site will initially focus on molecular biology, bio-informatics and polymer synthesis, with further R&D in the company's application pipeline across all five of its business growth platforms.