Science-based products and services company DuPont's $50 million Knowledge Centre in Hyderabad will soon become the company's largest R&D facility outside of the United States.

The $38-billion company has finalised plans to expand the four-year-old facility to develop products and services in diverse fields not only to suit the Indian market but to provide a platform for its global products.

The company spends about $2 billion on R&D annually, out of which a significant slice will be utilised by the Hyderabad facility and its other laboratories in South East Asia. It provides science-based products and services to a diverse set of industries ranging from food, agriculture to energy and protection.

Rajeev Vaidya, President (South Asia), said the expansion would support the company's global seed trait discovery research. It will undertake research on developing new traits on a variety of crops such as corn and maize that enhances yields and are more resistant to pests, he told newspersons here today.

The facility will also for the first time undertake a variety of application development work such as developing light-weight auto components. With India growing as a hub for small cars, the company feels that the need for replacing heavy metal components with lighter polymer parts would increase, he said.

Vaidya said the centre would also work on titanium technologies that will use its expertise in particle technology and polymer processing for applications in plastics. Apart from this, it will also work on applications in food packaging, fabric care and grain processing segments.

>amitmitra@thehindu.co.in

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