DuPont has set up a Knowledge Centre at Hyderabad in India. This will be a designated research hub for India and the Asia Pacific region. It presently houses 180 scientists and includes individual centres specialising in biotechnology, materials research and global engineering. It is DuPont’s first integrated knowledge centre outside the USA. It plans to have 300 scientists and other employees at this centre by next year and the total planned capacity will be 600 scientists, engineers and associated staff in due course of time. DuPont recorded net sales of US$ 5.18 billion in Asia Pacific in 2007 and has been clocking an average annual growth rate of 25 per cent in India.
According to senior vice president Uma Chowdhry, “Dupont succeeds when we connect science and technology to the market place. Our goal is to develop products to meet not only the needs of the people in India but also the needs of customers around the world.”
In 2007 DuPont announced plans to invest more than $30 million to construct its first R&D center in India to focus on delivering new products and technologies across the company. Research is already under way for Pioneer Hi-Bred, DuPont Crop Protection and DuPont Applied BioSciences, including discovery research for the DuPont-BP biobutanol advanced biofuels program.
“I am very optimistic about the opportunities for us and India\’s long-term growth potential,” said Balvinder S. Kalsi, president — DuPont India. “The DuPont Knowledge Center is a critical component of our growth strategy and will enable us to increase our speed to market with products that come out of our R&D and innovations pipeline.
The DKC is the sixth major DuPont R&D facility outside the United States. DuPont has more than 50 R&D facilities throughout the world with 20 in the United States and more than 30 in 11 other nations. Other major DuPont R&D facilities are located in Wilmington, Del.; Shanghai, China; Utsunomiya, Japan; Hsinchu, Taiwan; Wuppertal, Germany and Meyrin, Switzerland. DuPont invests an average of $1.4 billion annually on global research and development in a diverse range of technologies for many markets including agriculture, automotive, construction, electronics, chemicals and industrial materials. Today, DuPont has more than 5,000 scientists and engineers around the world.
