Bosch looks to grow India business beyond mobility solutions

Technology and services provider Bosch is eyeing business opportunities beyond mobility solutions in India.

The company showcased its extensive range of connected and smart solutions to business sectors including industrial technology, consumer goods, energy and building technology in India in a day-long symposium held in Bangalore on October 24.

To become a solutions provider for everyday life with end-to-end solutions in India, the company is targeting aggressive growth in various businesses verticals. At present, Bosch gets nearly 85% of its business from the automotive sector in India compared to 60% globally.

In India, Bosch has four business segments. Mobility solutions is the largest, followed by energy and building technology, industrial technology and consumer goods. The company sees a huge growth opportunity across different business verticals in India.

According to Dr Steffen Berns, managing director, Bosch Ltd and president, Bosch Group India, “Customers are increasingly looking for suppliers who can offer them end-to-end solutions. Bosch is leveraging the combined strengths of its products to offer integrated solutions to meet the demand of customers across key growth sectors in India.”

Part of its beyond mobility solutions offering in India include smart cities projects, smart manufacturing to increase productivity in factories, smart mining solutions to improve operational efficiency and productivity, affordable power tools for construction, and solutions to address India’s rapidly growing mass transports and agriculture solutions.

“Bosch is well positioned to offer meaningful solutions by harnessing its expertise across hardware, software and services. India benefits significantly from Bosch positions as it is home to Bosch’s largest engineering centre outside Germany, and we do understand the country’s local market requirements,” said Dr Berns. He highlighted key mega trends in India including mobility, infrastructure, safety, energy, food and healthcare which need specific solutions.

Given these mega trends in India, Bosch is looking at different applications to provide the right solutions. A few of these applications include transport, residential and commercial construction, smart cities and smart manufacturing. India is not going to be competitive only due to low labour costs but it needs to apply intelligence in the global scenario. Bosch is initiating this to increase productivity, quality and energy saving to make manufacturing in India better and smarter.

An electric, autonomous and connected future

Commenting on mobility solutions, Dr Berns said Bosch globally is looking at mobility from a three-pronged viewpoint – electric vehicles, autonomous and connected – and is working on a global level with key customers.

However, India is yet to catch up with these technologies and as BS VI has been announced in India, we are working with all our customers for right solution. In last four years, Bosch has invested Rs 3,500 crore in India overall and in 2016-17, the company is looking at investment of Rs 1,100 crore for the whole Bosch group.

Contributing to Make In India

Through its various Beyond Mobility solutions, Bosch aims to contribute significantly to the Make-In-India initiative. With a footprint of over 18 manufacturing facilities in India, Bosch has been a major player in manufacturing in India. 

“At Bosch, we believe, India is a huge market with higher potential for mobility and beyond mobility. We have started to invest early and continue to invest as the economy develops,” said Dr Berns.

On the skills development front in India, Bosch is not only creating low skilled jobs but at the higher end too. Being the biggest engineering centre in India outside Germany, two years ago it opened a branch for its worldwide research centre in Bangalore. Bosch has also started dual vocational training centre in India in line with the German model of vocational skills. 

The Bosch Group in India has more than 10 business entities, generating revenues of over Rs 17,000 crore with 18 different manufacturing locations and over 30,000 employees including 14,000 employed in R&D activity.