Wednesday, June 29 2005 16:49 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: The Netherlands-based Royal Philips Electronics plans to raise staff strength at its shared accounts service centre at Chennai to up to 500 from the current 190 people, a senior company executive said today (Jun 29, 2005).

"Our intent is to shift the entire back office accounting works of the company's American operations to the Chennai Centre", CEO of Philips India Ltd (PIL), a subsidiary of the global electronics giant, K Ramachandran told sources in Bangalore in response to a question.

"Accounting operations in the US cuts across 7-8 domains. We are moving domain-by-domain...we are pretty advanced in moving all of them (to Chennai)", Ramachandran said.

"Our Chennai centre currently has 190 people, we will close the year with 300 and by 2006-07, we will have 450 to 500 people", he said.

Meanwhile, he said merger of all the business units of Philips in India is expected to be completed legally by the end of next month. PIL will then be renamed as Philips Electronics India Limited. Philips' operations in India have already crossed the Rs 3,000 crore mark.

CEO of Philips Innovation Campus here Bob Hoekstra said Philips is investing Euro 50 million in building a new campus here. The first phase would be ready in August, and the medical systems division would then be moved there.

Philips is unveiling on July 8, a pilot test by which the company attempted to demonstrate how healthcare and high-quality diagnostics can be made available to poorer sections at affordable prices using technology and with the aid of satellites.

"It's not commercially viable, not yet", Ramachandran said earlier today in an address to Philips Techknow 2005, where the company's senior executives from India and overseas made presentations on 75 years of Philips in India and sustainability.

Director of Philips Innovation Campus, Vinay Shenoy, said a family of lighting solutions are being explored that addresses specific needs of rural India.

Philips is also working on a retina scanner, a device used for treating the blind, he said.