DuPont to expand Hyderabad knowledge centre

On November 21, 2008, global chemicals company DuPont launched its $50 million knowledge centre in Shamirpet mandal, on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Today, four years on, the company is positioning the centre as its largest seed research centre outside the US.

Spread over 20 acres, the centre will now increase its focus on the traits of a wide variety of crops. Specifically, it will look at areas such as yield improvement, pest resistance and drought tolerance.

DuPont is best known for its Teflon brand of non-stick coatings. In India, its focus areas have been marketing and sales of its products as well as research and development (R&D). Thus far, its R&D efforts have been focused on agriculture, food and nutrition, automotives, safety and protection (including defence), among other fields.

The knowledge centre will add new focus areas and work on developing new applications. These include "light weight" polymer applications for automobiles - products that can replace metals with high strength, high-end plastics. On the packaging front, it will look for solutions that will keep food fresh for long periods, thereby increasing shelf life and reducing wastage.

While announcing the knowledge centre's expansion plans, the $38 billion global chemicals company's senior officials in India noted that DuPont spends about $2 billion on R&D annually. However, they were not willing to share specific investment numbers for India.

According to Rajeev Vaidya, President (South Asia), DuPont, the knowledge centre is the company's only R&D location outside the US that undertakes developmental activities in all three areas - food, energy and protection - under one roof.