Sales from catering to mass segment in India to double this year, says Honeywell CTO

Development centres in India and other centres in the East aid in making products for the local or the “mass mid-market segment” and are not just back offices, Honeywell International’s global chief technology officer, Suresh Venkatarayalu, told ET.

As a part of its ‘East for East’ vision, the tech major designs, innovates and launches products for these markets from the development centres in India.

“We have built global technology and capability for 28 years (in these development centres) and our focus in the next three-five years is how do we innovate locally,” Venkatarayalu said. “Globalisation 1.0 was about people. This era of globalisation 2.0 (is where) markets are opening up and how large global companies like us can innovate and reinvent to grow our market share.”

Revenue from the mass-market segment and other products under the ‘East for East’ vision account for 15-20% of Honeywell’s sales in India.

Honeywell incubated the ‘mid-market’ segment two years ago during the Covid-19 pandemic. “We have made products for India specifically, like (we have) developed humidity and temperature sensor BlueTag, printers and scanners under the Impact brand to reduce the dependence on China, apart from stepping up N95 mask and other personal protection equipment production,” he added.

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The North Carolina-based company said sustainability, software automation and unmanned aerial systems were the big global macro-trends it was betting on for the future. Its four India development centres either play an integral part or completely own the product after developing it from scratch.

“We are looking to also develop sustainability labs for testing energy-storage technology and a huge testbed for unmanned aerial vehicles, both within India,” Venkatarayalu said.

In India, the company has technology development centres in Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Madurai, and employs 5,500 engineers — a third of the global number.