Upbeat on business prospects in India, Japanese technology major NEC Corporation plans to double its headcount in the country, while also finalising plans to set up an R&D centre.

NEC, which already has a significant presence in India, with solutions across several sectors including telecom, authentication and payment systems, currently employs over 2,000 people.

“We are looking at doubling the headcount and taking this past 4,000 associates over two-three years, while also scouting for a location to set up a research and development centre,” said Takayuki Inaba, Managing Director, NEC Technologies India.

“NEC is in the process of finalising plans on the selection of an ideal location for the R&D centre,” he said.

Smart city plans

Speaking to BusinessLine along with Katsumi Emura, Chief Technology Officer, Executive Vice-President and Member of Board, NEC Corporation, Inaba said: “We are working on a number of important projects in India and looking at opportunities in areas such as smart cities. We have a number of technology-driven solutions that could make a difference to these upcoming projects.”

Emura, who oversees the innovation side of NEC Corporation, said: “The focus now is on developing innovative proof of concepts, which can be simply replicated across a number of locations. These could be urban security, waste management, or even secure payment systems. While no one solution fits all, these can be customised for local requirements.”

Inaba said: “NEC, which functions across several business divisions, including the telecom sector, is eyeing emerging areas such as unified payment cards for public transport, and solutions for smart cities, including transportation. Transportation systems have been of particular focus for the company.”

Industrial corridors

One such opportunity that NEC is actively engaged with is industrial corridors, said Emura. “NEC has formed a venture with Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation to engage with the government on innovative logistics solutions. The venture seeks to harness the potential of NEC’s logistics visualisation system, whose focus is on reduction of transport lead time, inventory reduction and improvement of production planning accuracy,” he said.

Artificial intelligence may not necessarily hit jobs, said Emura. While some of the routine jobs may be taken over by AI, a new set of jobs based on innovation will come up, he added.

He cited the example of agriculture in Japan, where just 2-3 per cent of the population is directly employed. The who were earlier dependant on agriculture have moved to other services.

“We need to innovate and change the way we do things. Already, each individual is connected to at least four devices as a part of internet of things (IoT). In some locations this goes up to 10 devices. This only shows how complex the scenarion is getting,” he said.

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