Zoho Corp., Chennai-headquartered global technology company, announced its plans to form a consortium comprising of local technology companies based in the Kongu region. Through this initiative, Zoho will make a capital investment to set up R&D centres in the region, which will focus on the research and development of critical technologies for capital goods manufacturing, like machine tools, industrial automation software, and production process know-how.
In his recent extensive tour of the Kongu belt, Zoho co-founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu met several local industrialists, entrepreneurs, and business associations hailing from the districts Karur, Erode, Salem, Tiruppur, and Coimbatore. During his visit, Sridhar strongly insisted on the need to invest in R&D projects to improve technical knowledge and the region’s economic base.
“This region has a strong history of cooperation by the diverse base of industries and the locals have a strong commitment to work together. Together, this has lifted up the whole region. To achieve further economic progress as well as take the region’s capital goods manufacturing prowess to the level of Japan and Taiwan, we need to invest in R&D. This is where Zoho can help, by bringing in its vast R&D experience,” said Sridhar. “The consortium will allow us to collaborate with the region’s diverse set of industries and turn the region into an example across Tamil Nadu and India. I strongly believe that the Kongu region has the talent, energy, social commitment and entrepreneurial experience to do this.”
As the initiative requires collaboration on a massive scale, the consortium will comprise leading industrialists from various industries (home textiles, spinning mills, machine tools, agriculture, textile garmenting, etc.,) along with Zoho. Aside from Zoho’s capital investment and know-how contribution, other consortium members will also invest towards the development of critical technologies.
