Japan contributes to farming, automotive sector in India

"Tochi otome", a Japanese variety of strawberries is now produced in the suburbs of Pune.

The fruit is grown by using a Japanese method called elevated hydroponics culture.

Japan's NEC Corporation has come up with an idea to create both social and economic value of this project using Information and Communications Technology.

"India has the largest poverty population in the world, and 70 percent of them are living in the rural villages. In order to create new job opportunities for the villagers, we aim to create the better living standards by introducing Japanese farming methods and NEC's ICT technology to be established in India," said Shu Watanabe, Corporate Communications Division, NEC Corporation.

NEC has teamed up with the Institute of Cultural Affairs, an India based NGO to set up strawberry project in Pune.

"We have given the training to the villagers, so they can take this project to the village and in the group, they can have their poly-houses. They can improve their lifestyle," said Archana Pawar, staff member, the Institute of Cultural Affairs.

Growing Japanese strawberries requires high skills and experience. NEC's support of Information Technology services makes it capable to expand to overseas market.

Data such as temperature, humidity and sunlight hours as required for cultivation of crop are collected from several sensors installed in the Poly-house.

The cultivation data has been shared with the professionals in Japan through NEC's cloud system.

The Japanese agriculture professional organisation, GRA, is in charge of cultivation of strawberries in India. GRA analyses the data and gives feed back to India for cultivation support.

Staff in India can send photos, questions and requests to Japan for GRA professionals to analyze and respond to the queries.

"Now we can see photos and data such as water conditions and the temperatures at a glance of the PC. By observing the current situations at real time, we can take precautionary steps. As a result, the yield has increased. We are gradually achieving the business plan," said Tatsuya Katsube, Exective Assistant, Country manager in India, GRA Inc.

Not only farming, Japan is fast expanding its base in the growing auto parts industry in India.

In the suburb of Chennai, MHI-IPT - The Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Precision Tools factory is making a steady progress.

"Our company started from the technical cooperation of Japan's major heavy industry manufacturer, MHI, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Indian company, S.R.P.Tools. We re-launched in 2005 as MHI-IPT after the acquisition of S.R.P.Tools by HMI. MHI-IPT is providing gear cutting tools, gear hobs and broaches to the customers in India and South East Asia. We have been developing our business aiming to cost reduction and improvement of productivity for our customers in gear manufacturing," said Yoshinao Miyoshi, Chairman and MD, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Precision Tools Ltd.

With a history for over 40 years, the company is now thriving.

Five hundred employees are working in MHI-IPT, producing 1,500 gear cutting tools every month, accounting for 30 per cent of the market share in India.

MHI-IPT contributes in job creation in the country.

"We are using the same software, what it has been used in Japan. We send our design people to Japan to get training, how to use the software," said M.A. Dhanasekaran, General Manager - EDD, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Precision Tools Ltd.

"We are making tools to meet the international standards like, DIN, AGMA and JIS standards. We got the certification ISO 9001 since from 1994. In our company, each and every processes are inspected," added Shankar R, General Mamager - Manufacturing, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Precision Tools Ltd.

"For a final inspection, here we will check all the visual inspections and dimensions. Everything is completed, then we will make records here, after that, it will be handed over to our FGS for further customer dispatches," said M. Sethuraman, Manager - QAD, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Precision Tools Ltd.

N. Valliappan, General Manager - Sales, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Precision Tools Ltd., said, "We supply to exports also, especially to Japan, as well as south east Asia, Then we are supplying to America also, and Australia, Taiwan, so many countries we are dealing with."

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has its sales and service offices in Delhi and Bengaluru, is now preparing to start a new production plant in Bengaluru of the "Gear cutting machine tools".