48% of MNC R&D talent is in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: Bengaluru remains home to the highest number of multinational R&D centres and talent pool in India. New entrants last year included Twitter. It is estimated that the numbers will rise significantly over the coming years as disruptive new technologies make it imperative for MNCs to use India's huge engineering talent pool.
As much as 48%, or 155,000, of the MNC R&D workforce of 323,000 in India is in Bengaluru, as per a study by research firm Zinnov Consulting for 2015.Pune follows with 40,300, a quarter of that in Bengaluru; NCR is third with 31,000.
Bengaluru also accounts for 456 of the 1,165 MNC R&D centres in India (there are 928 MNCs, with some having multiple centres in India).An R&D professional is one who is involved in some part of product development.

TOI reported in December that India remains the No. 1location for MNCs to establish product engineering and R&D centres. The growth of these centres in India is outpac ing the average global growth. India accounted for $12.3 billion, or 40%, of the total of $31 billion of globalized engineering and R&D in 2015.Many of the world's biggest companies have centres in India. In 2015, 15 new MNCs entered India, including Twitter, Gionee, Mapr, Kellogg's, Sealed Air and Cleo.
Zinnov estimates that by 2020, the number of MNCs with centres in India will climb to 1,139, from 928 now, and their workforce will rise by 57% ­ to 508,000, from 323,000.
“New technologies like big data & analytics, mobility UIUX (user interfaceuser experience), machine learn ing, artificial intelligence and cloud are really disrup tive, and the need to do R&D in India in these areas wil rise sharply . No other coun try, outside the US, can provide the scale of engineers that India can,“ Anand Subramaniam, program manager at Zinnov, says. The costs in India are also a fraction of that in the US.
Subramaniam says software is becoming an integral part of every industry . This makes India, with its traditional strength in software, particularly valuable to MNCs. Pune is gaining from the increasing use of software in the automotive industry . The technology startup phenomenon is also helping to expand the required talent pool.