P&G sets up Innovation centre in Bangalore

Bangalore: Procter & Gamble has expanded its scope of its research and development in India by setting up an Innovation Centre in Bangalore.

P&G Home Products (PGHP) prior to this centre was working closely with external partners in a collaborative R&D mode under ‘Connect & Develop Centre.' P&G was working closely with government labs such as CSIR, academia such as IISc and a few other private companies.

With this new innovation centre, P&G while continuing its collaborative R&D will seek to move into innovation mode on its own in India. The new centre has a capacity to house close to 100 scientists.

P&G centre in India since 2004 has played a significant role in meeting some of the needs of P&G globally in the areas of Chemical sciences, Biological sciences, Engineering, Modeling & Simulation, Knowledge Services and other R&D services.

Said Arun Viswanath, director, Asia Connect+Develop and Head, Bangalore Innovation Centre, 'By leveraging the assets of India's technologies and most inspired minds, we expect cross-boundary innovations and knowledge to further enhance PGHP's strong research and development capabilities. Tapping into global innovation resources directly impacts the mission of Procter & Gamble - to improve the lives of the world's consumers with superior quality products at greater value. The growth of PGHP's R&D capability in India has coupled with the exponential growth of PGHP's business in India. With the opening of the new Innovation Centre the importance of India in P&G's global plans is clearly reflected.'

Procter & Gamble has over 7,800 scientists working in 22 Research Centers in 12 Countries around the world, including 1,250 Ph.D. Scientists.

Currently, PGHP invests 4 per cent of Worldwide Sales, of its $ 1.6 Billion, in research and development annually.