DuPont to expand Indian R&D facility

Science-based products and services company DuPont’s Knowledge Centre in Hyderabad will soon become its largest R&D facility outside of the US. The $38-billion company currently conducts research across 150 locations around the world. It provides products and services to a diverse set of industries, ranging from food, agriculture and textile to energy, automotive and protection.

It has finalized plans to expand the four-year-old Hyderabad facility to develop products and services in diverse fields to provide a platform for its global products.

The company spends $2 billion on R&D annually, a significant slice of which will be utilized by the Hyderabad facility and its other laboratories in South Asia.
Rajeev Vaidya, President (South Asia), said the expansion would support the company’s global seed trait discovery research. It will undertake research on developing new traits on a variety of crops such as corn and maize that enhance yields and are more resistant to pests.

It will also work on new molecules for developing fungicides, insecticides and pesticides.

"Most of the crop research programs are long-term and will take a few years before some of these hit the market,” Homi C. Bhedwar, Technical Director, (South Asia), said.