US-based Coherent to set up centre of excellence at IIT Madras Research Park.

Coherent Corp, the $5-billion US-based global leader in materials, networking and lasers for the industrial, communications, electronics and instrumentation markets, will open a centre of excellence (CoE) at the IIT Madras Research Park.

This will be the company’s first such centre and collaboration with an academic institution across multiple segments, said Giovanni Barbarossa, Chief Strategy Officer and President, Materials Segment, Coherent.

Coherent entered into a tripartite memorandum of understanding with Guidance Tamil Nadu and IITMRP to establish the CoE to focus on R&D of products and services for lasers, optical networking components and systems, EV batteries and compound semiconductor devices, said a release.

The American firm is one of the world’s largest photonics and compound semiconductor companies operating in 20 countries. As of June end, the company had nearly 26,000 employees of which nearly 2,400 were in research & development. It spent nearly $500 million on R&D and has over 3,000 patents, according to the company’s recent investors’ presentation.

Access to market and talent are two major reasons for setting up the centre in India. “We will look at setting up manufacturing opportunities in three years,” Barbarossa told newspersons after signing the agreement. “There is a 20-30 year opportunity for the company starting today,” he added.

It is important that the Indian government has a clear strategy to prefer not only Made in India but also Developed in India and give incentives to customers that Coherent will have, he said.

HBL