GE ‘Brilliant Factory’ unit at Pune to boost Indian exports

Sai Nikesh | The Dollar Business The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called on the global manufacturers to make better use of Make in India initiative. Inaugurating US-giant General Electrical’s Greenfield multi-modal manufacturing facility at Chakan, Pune, Narendra Modi stressed on immense manufacturing opportunities available in India. Hailing upon GE for its manufacturing facility unit, the PM urged the company to further its investments in ship-building, among various other sectors of India. The PM also highlighted the need for investments in defence manufacturing sector, while stating that Pune has immense potential to emerge as a defence production hub. He also emphasized on the Railway sector stating that the sector could become an engine of economic growth, and offered huge possibilities. Speaking at the event, John Rice, Vice-Chairman, head of global growth and operations, GE, announced that GE will begin the second phase of investment and said this will create additional capacity to support aviation, rail and diesel engine requirements. The project estimated to cost around $70 million will manufacture a range of diversified products for sectors like energy, oil and gas transportation. Besides this, the unit is also expected to manufacture aviation components and wind turbines, among other key products. The facility being built as ‘Brilliant Factory’ with single machine operation will bring automation, 3D printing and industrial internet on a single platform. The manufacturing unit, along with the domestic production, also aims at sharing products with the global markets and is expected to export half of its production and is also expected to create huge employment opportunities. With this manufacturing facility, the GE is aiming at doubling its wind energy market in India by 2016, say the sources. The Government of India had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the US-based GE in June 2013, for setting up this facility at an investment of around 1000 crore. Earlier in his statement in 2013, GE South Asia president and chief executive officer Banmali Agrawala had stressed that there is a need that the Indian government make policies to turn India as the global manufacturing hub. In this regard, he pointed out that the manufacturing companies in India must also cater to global markets along with domestic manufacturing for their own consumption.  

This article was published on February 14, 2015.