Samsung to double R&D staff to 2,000

Augmenting its existing strength, Samsung India Electronics will double its employees at its two research and development centres to over 2,000 engineers over the next three years.

"We will double the number of engineers working at the Bangalore and Noida R & D centres to 1,400 and 600 respectively," Samsung South West Asia President and CEO K S Kim said.

The need to increase its strength at its Noida plant is driven by the fact that the plant manufactures 6,000 colour televisions per day and posts 30 per cent rise in productivity every year.

Therefore to keep up, sales have to catch up with the 30 per cent increase in productivity, said Kim.

Samsung India will further establish 600 technology retail outlets across 24 cities in the country.

"This massive retail infrastructure launch across the country covering the top 24 cities is the first step towards that direction," Samsung India team leader (IT products division) Harry S Ahn said.

The retail outlets would be a combination of  models like shopping malls and multi-branded stores, slated to come up by March 2005. Nearly 150 dealers across the country will be a part of the process.