Boeing bets on India R&D and supply chain, seeking turnaround

Boeing has turned to India as an emerging R&D and supply chain hub as it tries to recover from a series of incidents that have shaken confidence in the U.S. aerospace manufacturer. In January, Boeing opened a new engineering and technology center in the city of Bengaluru, known as India's tech capital. The campus cost 16b rupees ($191m), which Boeing said is the largest investment of its kind outside the US. "Today, the middle class of India has 300m people," said Ryan Weir, Boeing's vice president of commercial sales and marketing for India. "That's over two times [the population] of Japan -- almost the size of the whole United State with just the middle class." Weir said this demographic will fuel the growth of India's aviation industry going forward. Boeing first established a wholly-owned Indian subsidiary in 2003 and has operated a research and development facility there since 2009. The company has added about 1,000 workers annually over the past three years, and now the operation boasts 5,500 engineers, the largest headcount outside the US. The new technology center will coordinate with Boeing's US arm to develop new aircraft models, underscoring India's higher profile within Boeing's umbrella. Boeing plans to form closer relationships with the over-300 suppliers in India. They provide structural components and electronic devices, among other deliverables. The US company is expected to support suppliers by facilitating the adoption of high-efficiency production systems and training engineers. These efforts will help improve production across a wide scope. In India, Boeing is also engaging in local production of critical aircraft components. Last year, a joint venture between Boeing and Indian conglomerate Tata Group started making tail fin structures for the 737. Previously the joint venture mainly made helicopters.<br/>