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‘Wipro-GE Healthcare will stay in Bengaluru but not averse to moving out’

‘Wipro-GE Healthcare will stay in Bengaluru but not averse to moving out’


In 2024, Wipro GE Healthcare — a joint venture between Wipro and GE Healthcare — announced an investment of $1 billion in manufacturing output and local R&D over the next five years. The company will first use this fund to expand its existing operations in its plants in Bengaluru and then consider a fifth plant either in Bengaluru or any other location, Chaitanya Sarawate, Managing Director, Wipro GE Healthcare & President and CEO, GE HealthCare South Asia, told businessline.

“We are not averse to going out of Bengaluru or staying in Bengaluru. We will analyse the situation on the new plant over the coming days,” he said.

Today, the company’s plants are located in Karnataka and specifically in Bengaluru due to proximity to suppliers. But the supplier base over a period of time has become geographically diverse and present in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh everywhere, he said.

Expansion plan

“We are expanding our manufacturing capacity to service local demand and to export,” he said. The company will expand its manufacturing to add product lines, including baby warmers and PET CT or MRI, he added.

“In the last 30 years, we have invested almost $4 billion in the India operations. We are at an inflection point now. Last year, we announced that we are going to invest $1 billion more in the next five years in both the manufacturing output as well as in engineering and R&D. Now, we are in execution mode,” he said.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a big trend. “For a country like India, AI is vital because we cannot build infrastructure fast enough for the population that requires access fastly. We see AI as a way to be able to enhance access to health care much more,” he said.

For Wipro GE Healthcare India is the place where a lot of the research happens, which actually translates into products. In the Bengaluru facility, there are 2,000 engineers working on innovation, he said.

India’s 75 per cent to 77 per cent requirement of medical technology is imported. India wants to reverse this trend to make sure that products are Made in India for the needs of the Indian customers, he said.





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