German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday praised Indian researchers for their innovation, especially in the area of medical sciences, which has led to low-cost solutions to detect major illnesses.

Inaugurating the €310-million Bosch research centre at Renningen, 20 km from Stuttgart, Merkel said during her recent visit to India, she saw some innovative work in the area of medical research and mobility. “I had the opportunity to visit Bosch’s R&D centre in Bangalore. Indians are not sleeping either. They are extremely creative and innovative. During their spare time, they have created a medical equipment to identify eye sight diseases,” she said. Merkel pointed out there was a lack of entrepreneurial spirit among Germans, and hence, the start-up culture was lacking here. “The world, especially Asia, is very dynamic. The world is not asleep. They are not waiting for us to wake up," she said. Volkmar Denner, Chairman of the board of management of the Bosch Group, said Bosch has created a new start-up platform. He called the new R&D centre at Renningen, which is Bosch's central hub for global research, as the Stanford of Bosch. He said one of the reasons for the start-up culture not becoming popular in the country was because most Germans are afraid to take risks. “As per a research report, 80 per cent of the Germans say they are afraid to take risks compared to 30 per cent of Americans.”

Earlier, Denner at a press conference said Bosch spends 10 per cent of its sales on R&D. “Bosch is already a software house.. About 18 patents are filed everyday," he said. He pointed out that Bosch invests €400 million every year into developing solutions for electrical mobility, and he expects that within the next five years, there will be number of fully automated vehicles plying on the freeways.

To boost start-up culture in the company, Bosch has given its creative researchers access to world-class infrastructure and business know-how. It is also helping them to bring to market their products faster. One area that they have succeeded in making a major breakthrough was in batteries for electric cars. He said the company expects that by 2020, its researchers will be able to produce lithium ion batteries for e-cars, which will be 75 per cent smaller and lighter.

(The writer is in Stuttgart at the invitation of Bosch)

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