Hitachi keen to push ‘Make in India’ programme

Published - February 16, 2015 11:10 pm IST - MUMBAI:

Toshiaki Higashihara (left), president and COO, Hitachi, says the company is investing 70 billion yen in the areas of IT, water, energy, transportation and healthcare. Ichiro Iino, MD, Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd., is also seen. Photo: Paul Noronha

Toshiaki Higashihara (left), president and COO, Hitachi, says the company is investing 70 billion yen in the areas of IT, water, energy, transportation and healthcare. Ichiro Iino, MD, Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd., is also seen. Photo: Paul Noronha

Japanese infrastructure and electronics major Hitachi, with its thrust on social innovation business, plans to grow its India business, and is committed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call of ‘Make in India’.

Hitachi opened its India office in 1935. Now it has 31 business bases in India with over 10,000 employees.

India’s revenues were at about a per cent of the company’s global revenues, and it planned to increase India’s revenues to 210 billion yen (around Rs.11,000 crore) by 2015 from 100 billion yen in 2013, Toshiaki Higashihara, President and COO Hitachi told the media.

The company plans to hike the number of employees in India to reach 13,000 by 2014-15.

He said, as part of its four-year investment plan in India culminating in 2014-15, Hitachi was investing 70 billion yen in the areas of IT, water, energy, transportation and healthcare. “We have already spent around 70 per cent of this budget,’’ he added.

On the focus areas that the company planned to make locally, Mr. Higashihara said, were solutions to meet the growing healthcare needs. It was already selling check-up diagnostic equipment and advanced medical devices. “Besides, we will focus on elevators and escalators to cater to urban planning. We have an order for 58 elevators, including 46 high-speed elevators in Mumbai.’’

The Hitachi chief said another area was railway systems. “We are targeting the areas of metro rails, monorail and high-speed trains. We will also consider tying up with Indian companies,’’ he said.

In the area of financial solutions, Hitachi will provide new services to advance financial services in India, which includes settlement services for banks, ATM operation services and cash operation and management solutions through Prizm Payment Services, which it had acquired in March, 2014.

In 2014, in construction machinery, Tata Hitachi Construction started exporting excavators to Africa and the Middle East. Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics has been exporting power electronics products to the Middle East and ASEAN since 2013.

Besides, Mr. Higashirhara said, the company was setting up a unit for industrial chemicals and high-end materials. An auto component manufacturing unit in Chennai, which would come up by 2016, he said.

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