(5 October 2005 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: A few days ago Phillips opened a new campus in India. This marks a stage - wise migration from its current location in Ulsoor to this upcoming 500,000 square feet state-of-the-art facility spread over 12.5 acres.

Philips Semiconductors CEO Frans van Houten says, "Philips Innovation Campus (PIC) is elementary to Philips technology strategy and will become its global competence center to fuel growth and create value in the business areas of healthcare, lifestyle and technology. In the domain of lifestyle, it will significantly contribute to Digital TV and Blu-ray. Connectivity will be the key area of contribution under the Technology domain.”

Specifically referring to the activities of Semiconductors R&D team in PIC Van Houten said, “We are working on cutting-edge 65nm SoC designs and libraries, IP modules and are investing heavily in our Nexperia Home and Mobile platforms using the skills of the India design team. Additionally, a large number of global design-ins for our DTV and advanced cell phone programmes are being supported from here.

"India has become a major growth opportunity for us both from consumer and technology points of view and the investment in this Campus reflects our commitment to expanding our presence here. PIC’s growth plans are concrete and realizable.” Van Houten says that PIC expects to have 2500 employees by the of 2007.

“PIC has emerged as a critical partner in the development of strategic and futuristic technologies for Philips worldwide. It contributes around one-third the software content for our products worldwide and has established itself as a key center of excellence. It houses R&D activities under one roof in order to bring about synergy, cross-fertilisation of ideas and sharing of best practices” he added.

PIC CEO Dr. Bob Hoekstra said, “Phillips conducted a survey on expectations of the future workplace. The new Campus is designed around its employees, facilitating an easy to experience work environment with advanced features. This flows from the three brand pillars of Philips – Designed around you, Easy to experience, and Advanced. It is designed to offer a dynamic innovation environment.”