From rxpgnews.com
DuPont opens plant biotech research centre in Hyderabad
By IANS,
Mar 14, 2007 - 4:14:56 PM
New Delhi, March 14 - DuPont, the leading crop genetics development company of the US, Wednesday opened its first plant biotech research centre outside its homeland, in Hyderabad.
'The Hyderabad centre would be located inside our Knowledge Centre and work as a global hub for the development of crop genetics,' said Balvinder S. Kalsi, president and chief executive of DuPont India.
'The global demand for agriculture is very strong and we have the science to help farmers across the value chain to meet the growing demand. Twenty scientists have already started work and by the end of the year, 100 scientists would be working in our research centre,' Kasli said here.
This centre is a part of DuPont's $100 million reinvestment plan to 'increase its speed-to-market for new seed products'.
The company Wednesday has major plant biotech research centres in several cities in the US including California along with 90 plant genetic research centres across the globe.
In February, the company had announced setting up the DuPont Knowledge Centre at Hyderabad with an initial investment of Rs.1 billion and same amount of recurring maintenance cost every year.
The research lab reinforces the importance of India as a global centre of scientific excellence. It would allow us to access tremendous scientific talent in this region to create products that address the food, feed, fuel and material challenges of 21st century,' Kalsi added.
Richard Broglie, director research and development of DuPont, said: 'The research centre would focus on six crops including rice and sunflower and mustard in India.'
'It would access India's highly skilled scientific talent and leverage investment to support the need of local farmers. It would also help in our agricultural seed sector grow worldwide,' Broglie told reporters.
The DuPont Knowledge Centre, expected to be ready by 2008, will be the sixth major research and development facility of the company outside the US. Other major facilities are located at Shanghai -, Utsunomiya -, Hsinchu -, Wuppertal - and Meyrin -.
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