Chinese telecom equipment supplier Huawei recently announced that the company is projected to establish a new R&D center at the same premises where its Whitefield plant is located in Bangalore, the Sina Tech News reported on June 17, adding that the facility will be valued between US$120 million and US$150 million. Currently, Huawei's R&D operations in India are carried out in three centers located in Bangalore and Huawei aims to consolidate all of its R&D operations into its Whitefield plant.

With a planned floor area of around one million square meters, the center is projected to begin construction in mid-July 2011, kick off operations in 2013, and accommodate up to 4,000 employees, according to the same source. The new center will focus on the development of mobile platforms and middleware for applications used in a wide range of Huawei's products by consolidating China's manufacturing and design competitiveness with India's software development capabilities. In addition, the center will also develop networking and enterprise service software for other businesses such as mobile phones and STBs (Set Top Boxes). In addition, Huawei is also planning to set up a new plant in Chennai of India, focusing on manufacturing tablet devices, and the plant is projected to begin operations in 2015. Further details regarding the company's new plant in Chennai, however, were not yet disclosed