Agilent to augment India operations

 Mumbai: Agilent Technologies, the global test and measurement solutions leader for the communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis industries has announced significant expansion plans for India. This includes recruiting more people for its Indian operations. At present the company has a little over 900 people on its payrolls in India, which will be increased to 2,500 by 2006. The additional manpower will allow Agilent to accelerate R&D and shared services operations in India.

According to Edward Barnholt, chairman, president & CEO, Agilent Technologies, "We have made significant investment in expanding our presence in India and will continue to do so. We greatly value the Indian capability and have charted out an aggressive growth plan." He added that, "India's contribution to Agilent's global revenue is scaling upwards and moving with the customer base, we are increasing our presence in India." Since its inception in November 1999, Agilent's presence in India has grown significantly and today it is considered an important part of the company's Asia-Pacific strategy. Asia Pacific is the largest market for Agilent contributing 41 percent of the company's global revenue and employing about 30 per cent of its global headcount.

According to Anita Manwani, vice president and general manager, global sourcing, Agilent Technologies, Inc, "We see huge market potential in growing industries such as telecom and pharma. We anticipate that in the coming years high growth in these sectors will add to the double-digit growth that Agilent is currently witnessing in India. By hiring quality professionals, we hope to meet increasing demand efficiently and innovatively." Agilent is also expecting an increase in high-skill work like research and development being sourced from India. R&D work is expected to be in the areas of wireless solutions systems, OSS and billing software for telecom service providers and device drivers for electronic products.

"People are our most valued assets and we strive to offer our employees a work environment that encourages innovation, growth and personal development," Barnholt said and added, "Agilent is recognised world wide as one of the best employers and we are committed to replicating the same in India". In India, Agilent Technologies has two entities - a sales and marketing support organisation, Agilent Technologies India and an IT-enabled services organisation, Agilent Technologies International.