GE to set up facility in Pune

General Electric, one of the world's most admired conglomerates, has chosen Pune for its integrated manufacturing facility.GE will invest $200 million ( Rs.1,000 crore, approximately) in the multi-technology and multi-business facility that would come up in a 60 acre plot in Pune, GE's India president and CEO John L Flannery announced in Bangalore on Monday. It would have a manpower requirement of around 2,000 and help the company expand its product portfolio to increase its market share and revenues in India, he said. The Pune facility will be a source for all of GE's India businesses and help the conglomerate localise it products for India, Flannery said. GE said it plans to add another 6,000 to its workforce (GE currently employs 14,000 people in India) in the next two to three years. Jeffrey Immelt, GE chairman and CEO said that the conglomerate was aiming to use the India technology centres — in Bangalore and Hyderabad — to develop 30% of its products for the local market. Currently 15% of the R&D centres' product development is for the local market. Discounting fears of a double-dip recession, Immelt said that was not what most businesses were seeing today. "I think it is a mixture of different sentiments that are going on," he said, adding that "business is better than the mood".Immelt said that there was a robust demand for infrastructure products and that the growth in the sector will continue."We still see robust demand for our infrastructure products and financial services in the Indian sub-continent. We will continue to focus on aviation, transportation, energy and healthcare to grow our business, which had seen about 30% increase last year," Immelt said.He said he remained bullish on India as it ranks among the three fastest growing businesses for GE. "We have substantial business coming up in the renewable sector, especially wind energy with orders for $100 million this year and hope to do $250-million business in the sector next year," he said.