Posted on: Tuesday, November 2, 2004

Honeywell bulking up in India

By S. Srinivasan
Associated Press

BANGALORE, India — Aerospace and high-tech manufacturer Honeywell International Inc. will hire 1,000 software programmers and invest $10 million in India over the next 12 months, a company official said yesterday.

Morristown, N.J.-based Honeywell, which makes a range of products from airplane parts to home thermostats, began its Indian operations with a manufacturing unit in Gurgaon, a satellite town of India's capital, New Delhi. It now has research units in Bangalore and the southern town of Madurai. The centers currently employ around 3,000 people.

Scores of Western companies farm out software development, engineering design and routine office functions to countries such as India and China, where labor costs are lower. The move helps the companies cut costs, but means job losses in the West in some cases.

India earns $12.5 billion annually from outsourcing.

Honeywell's research centers in India cater to the group's software and product design needs in aerospace, transportation, power systems and automation sectors.

Honeywell employs around 100,000 people across the world and had revenues of $19 billion in the first nine months of 2003.