Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
'Offshoring R&D 2008' begins in Bangalore
By Jaya Kishore B
|
Friday, 14 March 2008, 01:57 IST
Bangalore: An event with a focus on the research and development landscape in India, "Off shoring R&D 2008-collaborate, Strategize, Innovate" was commenced here on Thursday. The event is being organized by the Zinnov, a management consultancy company based in Bangalore.
The two-day event is a congregation of Country Head's, CEO's, CFO's, key decision makers and change makers from across 400 captives in India will discuss about challenges and solutions for the tribulations being faced by the R&D centers in India.
The issues such as opportunities in India for the R&D activities and understanding the Indian market and designing the new products for the market, opportunities for innovation will be discussed on Friday during panel discussions, key notes that are divided into three tracks. Also, best strategies for handle cost escalation; human capital, organizational structure, productivity and top management challenges in India will be the key discussion points of the event.
Today Indian R&D sector is facing vital challenges like Attrition and low employee productivity. "Currently the Attrition rate at R&D centers in India is 8 to 20percent,which is becoming very tough to cope up for them. Besides, employee productivity in India is 30to 40 percent low due to low experience level and lack of domain expertise," said Pari Natarajan, CEO of Zinnov while addressing a press conference on Thursday. Still, "Trends like growing leadership talent and increase in product ownership are positioning India at the forefront of R&D offshoring capabilities" he added.
In India the number of new R&D centers will remain low in the next 18 months. But the escalating operating costs in India R&D centers will start stabilizing and industry will move towards greater levels of maturity by 2009, said Pari Natarajan.
Indian Engineers are creative: Replying to a question, B.Ramaswamy, president &MD of Sonata Software said that Indian engineers are as much creative as their western counterparts. It was just a perception that Indian engineers are "not creative" though they are hard working. In addition, "Giving opportunities and rewards becomes important when it comes to nurture creativity. It should happen in India as well like in the U.S," said Dave Ettle, SVP, Products and Technology, AMDOCS OSS Division.
During the first day, Dr.Bobby Mitra, Managing Director, TI India; Sharad Sharma, CEO of Yahoo! India R&D; Naresh Chand Guptha, Senior Vice president, Print and Publishing Business Unit & Managing Director, Adobe Systems were conferred Zinnov R&D leadership awards. This was followed by a panel discussion on challenges of starting and scaling a captive in today?s business environment.
