Brief: Ericsson Plans R&D Center In India

BANGALORE, India — Swedish telecom firm Ericsson plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in India, setting up an R & D center in India, expand its existing manufacturing facilities, and build a global distribution center.The R & D center will be in Chennai, southern India. Ericsson already has outsourced some R & D efforts to Wipro Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services, and the new center will be in addition to the existing partnerships, according to reports.The expanded manufacturing facility will be in Jaipur, northwestern India, while the global delivery center will be in Gurgaon, near New Delhi.With annual investments of about $100 million in India, Ericsson now employs 1,500 there and will add up to a thousand people each year in the country. But the company has ruled out a plant to manufacture wireless handsets in the country.