Automotive major Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) is setting a global digital hub in Hyderabad with an investment of $150 million. The FCA ICT India facility will be its largest such hub outside of North America as well as EMEA.
"It will create nearly 1,000 technology jobs by the end of 2021. The employees will get to work on products and concepts that will define future of mobility at FCA," the company said.
The global digital hub will serve as a transformation and innovation engine for FCA and drive global IT strategy and deliver excellence through a robust platform, technology and service centres of excellence. It will focus on building strategic competencies in niche technology areas such as connected vehicle programmes, AI, data accelerators and cloud technologies, a statement from the company said after its senior leadership virtually announced the decision to set up the hub.
“One of the key objectives of FCA ICT India is to digitalise every aspect of FCA’s automotive operations globally and within India and to shift from legacy to digital through adoption of emerging technologies,” said Mamatha Chamarthi, CIO, FCA, North America and Asia Pacific.
“While reviewing our strategy our last year, we knew next step was to set up a global digital hub which would serve as a transformation and innovation engine. Over the coming years, we will ramp up our presence through our new centre in Hyderbad and in Chennai, where we recently expanded our engineering operations,” she said.
Natural choice
India was a natural choice for the hub because of the “market attractiveness and the country’s positions as a leader in IT talent”.
Five factors that influenced the decision to establish the facility in Hyderbad were Telangana’s government “pro-business and highly investment friendly policies; abundant availability of talent; impressive public infrastructure and connectivity; wonderful city to live in; and an IT ecosystem that presents a very strong value proposition for us,” she said. The global digital hub will also expand FCA’s relationships with several ecosystem partners, including strategic partners, startups, digital accelerators and universities.
Director and Head of FCA ICT India Karim Lalani said the hub will “operate as a fully integrated part of global team and drive global IT strategy. We foresee our global digital hub driving innovation in multiple areas, including customer safety, connected mobility and digital showroom experience,” he said.
Right decision
Telangana IT and Industries Minister K.T. Rama Rao, addressing the virtual meeting, welcomed FCA to Telangana and said “you have made the right decision.”
Industries and IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan assured “Telangana government will be your partner at all steps. We will personally ensure that at no step you face even the slightest obstacle or hurdle in your Hyderabad activities.”
The $150 million investment to set up a global digital hub in Hyderabad while cementing “our continued commitment to India and our customers,” is a significant step forward to make Indian operations more capable to develop digitally-driven products and technologies for India and the world, FCA India President and MD Partha Datta said.
At present, FCA in India has a joint venture vehicle and powertrain manufacturing facility in Ranjangaon, Maharashtra. The company’s engineering and product development operations are in Pune and Chennai.
