Friday, September 30 2005 16:34 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Driven by lower operating costs that's half compared to Europe, the Netherlands-headquartered Royal Philips Electronics is seeking to carry out more research and development work in India, and plans to hire nearly 900 professionals by 2007-end for the Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) here.

PIC had a headcount of 1,628 professionals as of last month, and CEO of Philips Semiconductors Frans van Houten said the plan is ramp it up to 2,500 by December 2007.

CEO of PIC Bob Hoekstra said one-third of Philips' software engineers globally are currently located in India.

PIC, set up in September 1996, develops embedded and application software for Philips products, design flows, chip IP and libraries and system design, among others, in the fields including consumer electronics, semiconductors and applied technologies.

Hoekstra said exports from PIC is expected to top Rs 366.4 crore in the current calendar year from Rs 261.2 crore in 2004.

Philips opened its new campus here today (Sept 30, 2005), heralding a stage-wise migration from its current location at Ulsoor to this upcoming 500,000 square feet state-of-the-art facility spread over 12.5 acres.

First two phases of the new facility entail an investment of 30 million Euros (RPT Euros), Hoekstra said. The company's aim is to boost the space to 700,000 sq facility by investing an additional 20 million Euros (RPT Euros).

He acknowledged that Philips brought business to India because of economic reasons as operating costs here are half the cost of Europe, one-third of the cost of typical USA, and one-fourth of the cost of Silicon Valley in the US. The scenario has remained the same in the last six years.

CEO of Philips India, K Ramachandran said the company's sales turnover, including exports, are in the region of Rs 3,000 crore and it's on course for 17-20 per cent growth in the current calendar year.