Thyssenkrupp, a diversified industrial group, has set up a new technology centre in India which would be leading the group’s digitalisation and drive transformation in the engineering and manufacturing sector.
The new facility at Hinjawadi in Pune is the only such hub for digitalisation for the group globally. It will provide high-end R&D services in artificial intelligence, the internet of things, data analytics, AI, cloud computing, AR/VR, ML, and software engineering to support digitalisation projects for the group’s business globally.
Thyssenkrupp is already carrying out engineering work from India. Things like data science, artificial intelligence, and embedded software development are being done on a small scale in Germany. With the setting up of this center in India, it was being scaled up now.
Cetin Nazikkol, CEO, Thyssenkrupp , Asia Pacific and Africa, said advancement in digitalization was accelerating and they needed a lot of people with relevant skills which they would find in India. The centre had the potential to be the biggest unit of Thyssenkrupp in India, he said. At present the group has around 4,600 people in the country.
“Technology was based in Germany and in other countries but because of the speed of acceleration they could no longer just manage it just from these countries. It was not enough to work from the US or from Europe, so companies need to go abroad. And when it comes to abroad, it’s India. Things are also accelerating especially after Covid,” Nazikkol said
“Growth is clear because you cannot stop the trend for digitalisation and secondly, you do not find enough skilled talent in Europe. We require a lot of people with lots of skills which is available only in the Indian ecosystem,” he added.
German companies such as Bosch, Siemens and Deutsche Bank have large setups in India for digitalisation or technology hubs and they too could grow to a similar scale in India, and reaching a size of 10,000 would not be unrealistic for them.
thyssenkrupp had domain expertise and knowhow about the technical expertise that was now being combined with digitalisation, Nazikkol said. For example, the company pioneered the mass production of ammonia and had 100 years of experience, in designing, building, and running these plants. “When you now combine this with data analytics, control systems, and artificial intelligence, you have something really special,” said.
Rohit Gupta, head of the technology centre, said the global leadership of Thyssenkrupp understands that digital is going to grow and given the demographics, number of engineers, and young population, India would continue to be a potential talent factory.
While Thyssenkrupp might be seen as a heavy machinery manufacturing company but it was high in the innovation index and the technology centre in Pune would drive innovation for our group and could accelerate new product development in both global and local markets, Gupta said. These solutions would go into steel production, industrial components and systems, automotive components, plant engineering, and materials services segments.
Donatus Kaufmann, member of the board, Thyssenkrupp AG, Reinhold Achatz, chief technology officer, Thyssenkrupp AG and Ravi Kirpalani, CEO, Thyssenkrupp India inaugurated the new facility in Pune.
