GM India ties up with IIT Kharagpur for joint research

Auto major General Motors India has joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, for carrying out joint research in the areas of electronics, controls and software.     

The partners announced here today that a new educational curriculum would be jointly developed leading to a post-graduate degree in these fields.     

GM President and MD Karl Slymn told reporters that to increase its production capacity, the company has invested $300 million in its Gujarat plant.     

The existing facility of 60,000 units has been increased to 85,000 units, Slymn said.     

GM India's second plant is coming up at Talegaon, near Pune in Maharashtra in September 2008. It will have an initial annual production capacity of 1,40,000 vehicles, Slym said, adding that so far GM invested about $1 billion in India.     

GM market has been increased by 30 per cent during the current year while the company has initiated process of constructing more plants in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra and the production may go up by 3 lakh units in near future, he said.     

In a move to further strengthen its global presence and provide world-class design services to GM's operations in India and other parts of the world, he said the Indian unit has opened the GM India Design Studio in Bangalore last year with an investment of $200 million.