German company Siemens vows to bring 4,000 jobs in India in addition to its 16,000 employees in the country through an investment worth $1.12 billion, The Economic Times reported.

The move makes Siemens the first European conglomerate to commit a huge amount of money in response to the Make in India campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The company also opens its doors to a possible merger and acquisition in software, according to CEO Joe Kaeser, who is in New Delhi with the company's board.

Kaeser met with Modi to assure him of the company's support for Make in India. The CEO also suggested that the government revise the slogan to "make it happen in India" to include automation, training, education and societal development, and go beyond just manufacturing. Apart from the investment, Siemens also plans to move some international functions here, Kaeser added, referring to certain regional responsibilities like "competence centres."

In an interview with The Economic Times, Kaeser revealed that Siemens had invested some $2.2 billion here in the past decade. He also assured that the company would continue investing in the country to support Modi's initiative.

Siemens also expressed its interest to merge the company's engineering skills with India's software capabilities in its operations here, disclosing the possibility of an acquisition. The German company employs more than 4,000 engineers, one-third of which are software.

"The ideal thing is that you partner up," Kaeser was quoted by The Economic Times as saying. "We do not rule out M&A... Bringing skills together... can be a very rewarding way to grow business. We'll see how it goes."

Siemens is currently trying to outdo French company Alstom in a huge locomotives order, which is considered the biggest from India and among such orders in the world in recent times. However, some reports say that Alstom's bid is more competitive. Kaeser, on the other hand, notes that the company is not dependent on just one order.

Siemens recently won a locomotives order in Egypt worth $8.96 billion, the largest single order in the company's history. The project involves setting up 14GW of power generation capacity, equivalent to three-and-a-half times the size of one ultra mega power project in India.

By: DocMemory
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