The Hindu Business Line : Shell plans technology centre in Bangalore

The attraction and retention of top Indian technical talent has been a major driver in establishing Shell Technology India. Bangalore has been selected as the base since the city has become a centre of science and technology development and offers an inspiring environment for top talent to work and live.

Bangalore , Feb 7

ROYAL Dutch Shell announced on Tuesday that it was setting up its latest technology centre in Bangalore by the second half of 2006.

Currently, Shell has major research and development facilities in Houston, Rijswijk and Amsterdam.

The Bangalore centre will deliver high-end technical studies, projects and services for Shell across the globe, as well as supporting interests in India, said Mr Vikram Singh Mehta, Chairman, Shell Companies, in a press release.

The services will include upstream exploration and production activities as well as downstream refinery and chemical operations. Shell Technology India will also provide access to cutting-edge Indian talent, he said.

Sources at Shell told Business Line that the company has already started hiring for the Bangalore centre and has recruited some 61 people till date. "We plan to scale up the headcount to 150 by mid-2006 and eventually ramp up to 1,000 in three years with an additional support staff of around 300."

The company is investing "tens of millions of dollars" in the Bangalore centre, which will move to a "purpose-built" campus in 2009 and commence as an equal player in Shell global technical works, the sources said.

The attraction and retention of top Indian technical talent has been a major driver in establishing Shell Technology India, Mr Mehta said, adding that Bangalore has been selected as the base since the city has become a centre of science and technology development and offers an inspiring environment for top talent to work and live. "The Bangalore centre aims to be world class, capable of producing leading-edge technical solutions to meet critical business challenges and develop products that will be key to the future of energy business," he said.

Shell Technology India will look to establish close links with the industry and the academia. As part of this programme, Shell is starting a joint project with the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, in seismic processing, apart from discussing different projects with other IITs, the release said.

Royal Dutch Shell is the world's third largest integrated oil company in more than 140 countries by market cap, the release said. It has made the largest foreign direct investment in India among all integrated oil companies (around $1 billion) and is the only global major to have a retail licence in India.

Shell has interests in natural gas (in the form of liquefied natural gas), lubricants, liquefied petroleum gas and automobile fuel retailing in India.

Shell also sources its IT-related requirements from the Bangalore-based software services vendor Wipro Technologies.

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