India’s growth story: Immelt optimistic

“When I look at all the GE businesses here they all have momentum. The composite of businesses we are in I think fit very nicely to when investments are going to be made in India,’’ Immelt said.

“We have in Bangalore a great technical footprint which I think will allow us to penetrate the Indian market more fully and with the facility in Pune we have a manufacturing capability that will allow us to localise and be more responsive to customers we think that is a good one-two punch in India,’’ he said.

The GE research center in Bangalore has primarily been involved in developing medical devices to suit developing world requirements like a MAC 400 ultra-portable ECG machine to diagnose heart ailments and research for efficiency in generation of power from renewable sources like wind power. The manufacturing facility at Pune will have healthcare products as its initial focus and will expand from there,GE officials said.

The clear challenges for the Indian government at present is how to build infrastructure in a clear transparent manner and how to ensure that all people are taken along,the GE chairman said. “Steady investment in infrastructure through clear rules of government in interaction with industry,’’ is needed,he said.

A market with more than a billion potential consumers one day,a middle class that has immense human resources,are an inspiration for any business,Immelt pointed out.

GE like much of global business is moving away from outsourcing to accessing new markets,the GE chief said. “The cost of producing software in the US and India is not very different today. I don’t think of classic outsourcing so much. If we want to be big in India we need to invest in India. I think outsourcing is less important to us today than being able to be big players in new markets,’’ Immelt who is a member of US President Obama’s jobs council said.

Immelt however also pointed out that business in general in the US is in favour of extending and expanding the H1-B visa programme to fill up nearly 2 to 3 million skilled technical job openings even as the US attempts to bridge the skills mismatch through various internal programmes.

The GE boss also said that global business in real terms is currently much better than the economic mood projects it to be. “The underlying business is better than the mood today,’’ he said in the course of a media interaction on a wide range of subjects.

GE India currently has a total of 14,000 employees across all businesses and is expected to reach 20,000 by next year.