Rolls-Royce to power up R&D in India

Introduction

Rolls-Royce, best known for its engines that power civil and military aircraft around the world, is looking to scale up its research-and-development operations in India with the addition of a captive unit. Bangalore — which already houses R&D units of Boeing and Airbus, and others like Mercedes-Benz — is among the top contenders for the centre, which would complement Rolls-Royce's outsourced pool of 950 engineers.

Rolls-Royce operates two engineering centres in Bangalore along with Quest and TCS, which were established in 2005 and 2010, respectively.

"We currently have a good relationship with two Indian companies — TCS and Quest — who supply us with contract R&D services. We are slowly up-skilling these teams. Now, we have advanced plans to move into the next phase of growth in what we do in R&D through our own operations," said Paul Stein, chief scientific officer of RollsRoyce who was in Bangalore.

While the Quest centre supports the delivery of Rolls-Royce's exclusive engineering solutions, the TCS centre provides engineering solutions and services for product development.

Both centres concentrate on the company's civil aerospace business, with a small amount of work being done for its marine business. The company is looking to add resources that could work on its other businesses, including civil nuclear technology and power systems for the industrial and energy sector.

Stein, who spoke exclusively to TOI, said that India had a massive talent pool to fish from. "We are looking to grow capability not just in IT, but in aerospace as well," he said. And added, "At some stage in the future we may do more fundamental research here."

Kishore Jayaraman, president of Rolls-Royce India, said like many other global companies their ultimate goal was to generate IPs (intellectual property) out of India.

"We are in R&D today, but we can develop that into systems, bigger packages, serving bigger development needs that might be into futuristic technology. That's the direction we are thinking about and that's the direction we are moving in," said Jayaraman.

In India, more than 750 Rolls-Royce engines of 10 different engine types power Indian military aircraft.

The company's Trent 700 engines power the Airbus A330 aircraft used by Jet Airways for their long-haul operations. Rolls-Royce also has a 50:50 partnership with HAL to manufacture components for its Trent family of engines.

"I would love to see India become an aerospace hub, particular in this area in Bangalore," said Stein.

Source

Business Standard, July 01, 2014