'German firms see huge potential in Bengaluru'

Ahead of the visit of the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel to the City on October 6, Germany has said that Bengaluru is the place in India where one can actually see “Make in India” by German firms.

Highlighting the significance of Merkel’s maiden visit to Bengaluru, the Consul General of Germany in Bengaluru, Jörn Rohde on Friday said, “Bengaluru is the place in India where you today can actually see not only ‘Make in India’ by German companies but furthermore increasingly top-notch ‘R&D in India’ by companies like SAP, Bosch, Siemens, Mercedes-Benz and many more.”

Merkel’s trip to Bengaluru comes a year after German President Joachim Gauck visited IT-BT hub in India.

Merkel will experience first hand Industry 4.0/IoT in the making in Bengaluru. She will see that City’s R&D centers are an integral part of the German companies operating worldwide, Rhode said.

 Merkel, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will visit Bengaluru to highlight the close relations between India and Germany,  in research & development and smart manufacturing, in particular.

The two leaders will visit the Bosch innovation center and the vocational training center here.

German investment
Merkel and Modi will speak at the Business Forum organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) in collaboration with the German Fraunhofer Institute. They will also interact with Indian and German business leaders.
“We are proud that Chancellor Merkel is coming to Bengaluru thus emphasising the strong ties between our countries. During the visit of the German President a year ago, the multiple collaborations were highlighted.

“The visit of our Chancellor stresses the importance of the 9.7 billion Euro-German investment in India, 1,600 German companies in India, over 200 registered in Karnataka, provide jobs for more than four lakh Indians.

“But at the same time it accentuates that this is not a one-way-street but an exchange in the true sense: the German economy gains tremendously by the innovation potential of the R&D centers in India. In Bengaluru one can see global integration at its best,” Rohde stated.