Panasonic sets up R&D units with TCS, Tata Elxsi

The Japanese company plans to invest ~240 crore over the next five years

Japanese consumer electronics major Panasonic has engaged with Indian IT and engineering services providers Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Tata Elxsi to develop smart solutions and products for customers in India and neighbouring countries.

The company has identified India as its third major research and development (R&D) centre after Japan and the US. The company earned ~9,600 crore revenue from India last year, two per cent of the Japanese giant’s overall turnover.

Panasonic will invest ~240 crore over five years for developments in areas such as connected home appliances, mobility, energy, storage solution and security.

“This investment is about 10 per cent of our revenue expectations from the new businesses in India, South Asia, West Asia and Africa,” said Manish Sharma, president and chief executive officer of Panasonic India and South Asia.

The company has set up two overseas development centres in Bengaluru as part of its R&D activities in India through India Innovation Centre in Gurugram, earlier Gurgaon. The centre at a TCS office in Bengaluru employs about 60 software engineers. The other was set up about a month ago on Tata Elxsi’s campus.

The company termed the facility at TCS as the first innovation hub from India and would work on solutions for connected community, mobility, energy and industrial internet of things.

TCS will bring in its industry know-how and global innovation practices to create an ecosystem for Panasonic to shape up the future of product strategy, the Japanese firm said.

“It is important to be close to where the technology development happens. Last month, we opened another offshore development centre at Tata Elxsi and now opened an innovation centre at TCS. This initiative is pretty deeprooted. The one at Tata Elxsi is only for appliances and will look at the development of artificial intelligence and internet of things solutions,” said Sharma.

Sharma expects India to contribute nearly four per cent to Panasonic’s overall revenue by 2019, adding the service providers will work on the technology for the facilities and Panasonic will make investments.

Panasonic is recruiting software engineers for the innovation hub at TCS and expects to hire 100 in a few years. “We will hire mainly from the top institutes (such as IITs),” Sharma said.