Telecom equipment maker Motorola plans to invest $17 million and hire nearly 500 people at its India R&D centre here every year, officials said on Thursday.
"We will invest as long as India continues to grow," Motorola chief technology officer Padmasree Warrior told reporters in Bangalore at the launch of Motorola's applied research lab at its centre.
Motorola has invested over $150 million in India since opening its R&D centre, which includes $85 million spent since the last two years.
"We plan to grow this ($85 million) investment by 10 per cent to 20 per cent per year," officials said.
Warrior said Motorola will increase its India headcount by up to 25 per cent annually.
Asked about Motorola's plans to manufacture mobile phones in India, she said, "the company was always exploring this option and had not finalised any plans. However, over 40 per cent of the software in our devices are made in India."
The applied research lab, she said, will be in the areas of converged networks, autonomic networking, enterprise applications and embedded systems and physical sciences and would employ about 35 scientists, and the number which ould be ramped up to about 100.
Warrior said the lab will work on technologies with a timeframe of five to 10 years. "The launch is topical, given our customer base in India, increasing access to partnerships and a growing supplier ecosystem," Motorola South Asia vice president, Amit Sharma said.