US firm Waters in talks with K’taka govt to invest $16 million to set up a GCC in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: The Massachusetts-based $16 billion analytical laboratory instrument and software company Waters Corporation is investing $16 million (Rs 133 crore) to set up its global capability centre (GCC) in Bengaluru’s RMZ Ecoworld.

The company’s president and CEO Udit Batra shared this information with the visiting business delegation headed by Large and Medium Industries & Infrastructure Minister M B Patil on Thursday in Boston, USA. The delegation held discussions with Waters to explore opportunities to further expand their presence in Karnataka.

The company has also requested support in building partnerships with local pharmaceutical giants manufacturing biosimilars to be able to collaborate with the vision to export medicines to other markets.

The delegation also did a tour of the Waters’ analytical instrument-manufacturing factory to better understand the product, which will be a gamechanger for life sciences and material testing.

Patil is leading a high-level delegation comprising senior officials from the Department of Commerce and Industries to the USA to attract investments across many sectors into the state. Dr S Selvakumar, Principal Secretary, Department of Commerce and Industries, Gunjan Krishna, Commissioner for Industrial Development and Director, Industries and Commerce are accompanying the minister.

The meeting with Waters also discussed developing in-house knowledge and training strategic workforce with government collaboration.

At Teradyne, the delegation visited the company’s testing facilities to understand various testing machine they have and their utility for the semiconductor players.

The meeting also discussed supporting the company with building a sales presence by connecting to customers in the Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) space to ensure future investments in R&D and manufacturing in the state.

Teradyne, valued at $15 billion, is involved in task automation through robotics, delivering rapid return on investment (ROI) and unleashing human potential, and electronic test solutions, where their Automated Test Equipment expedites time-to-market in industries prioritizing reliability and performance.