Hitachi eyes Rs 20k cr revenue from India by FY15

Japan's engineering and electronics major Hitachi is looking to increase revenues in India to Rs 20,000 crore by financial year 2014-15 and plans to hire over 5,500 people to meet its growth targets.

"We would like to scale to 300 billion Yen (Rs 20,000 crore) (by March 2015). It is almost three times from the current business," Hitachi President Hiroaki Nakanishi said.

Hitachi, which started its business in India in 1930, had a consolidated revenue of 100 billion yen (Rs 6,700 crore) as on March 2013.

The company also plans to invest Rs 4,700 crore by financial year 2014-15.

It has 24 subsidiaries employing over 7,000 people in a wide range of segments, including power and industrial systems, industrial components and equipments, air conditioning and television. It is planning to have 13,000 employees in India by 2015.

On growth prospects in India, Nakanishi said the company is focusing on 'social innovation' business that includes IT and telecom, power, industrial, transportation and urban development systems to drive growth.

Highlighting the importance of banking and IT sectors, he said that to cater to the huge population many commercial banks want to outsource their services like cash dealing services, not only the setting up ATMs but also on its applications.

"Indian economy is growing, incomes are increasing. So, how to provide services in those areas is a good opportunity for us," Nakanishi said.

In addition, he said, Hitachi is looking to enhance its profile by selling software services in India.

"We would try to expand. In the case of outsourcing those (IT) contracts, it could be important to India but now we are also interested in selling software services in India," he said.

Hitachi's current IT business projects in India focus mainly on software design and some outsourcing.

Underlining the importance of the Indian market, Hitachi held its board meeting in India on December 2012, which was the first outside Japan.