Prashanth G N - Times News Network

Bangalore, Jul 6: As European Aeronautics Defence and Space (EADS) decides to set up an exclusive campus in India, the question is, can Bangalore fulfil its needs? Can the state government offer adequate incentives to persuade this premier European space and defence company to set up campus in Bangalore? The question is important as EADS is considering one of India’s three emerging cities — Bangalore , Chennai and Hyderabad — for the campus.

Yvan Le Naour, EADS vice-president for Global Industrial Development, Strategy Planning and Projects, told The Times of India that the EADS executive committee decided to set up a campus in India one month ago. “The question now is where to set up the campus. We are evaluating the three cities. We will take a decision by August.’’

Naour, however, said Bangalore is in contention because EADS considers it the aeronautical capital of India . HAL and ISRO are headquartered here. EADS has projects going on with HAL and ISRO. Bangalore hosts aeroshows every two years and also has the premier science institute of India, IISc. 
While the evaluation is on, Naour ventured to say Bangalore is becoming a difficult choice to make as “it is very expensive compared with Chennai and Hyderabad where salary costs, land, buildings are cheaper. It is a serious factor for us to consider.’’

Naour, however, said Bangalore is in contention because EADS considers it the aeronautical capital of India . HAL and ISRO are headquartered here. EADS has projects going on with HAL and ISRO. Bangalore hosts aeroshows every two years and also has the premier science institute of India, IISc.

“We would ideally like to stay in Bangalore. We are wondering how the State government can help us cut costs. Salary costs can’t be helped, but can the government give us land and help set up the buildings,’’ Nauor asked. He said: “I understand Chennai and Hyderabad do not have as much knowhow, but overall costs there are lower, so we could consider them.’’

Why we need EADS ?

The campus will have engineers working on an array of projects — Airbus, Atrium, Eurocopter, ATR and defence — all of which come under EADS overall supervision. Plan is to have 2,000 employees working on projects. EADS also plans to house captive companies and suppliers of Airbus (like P3), Eurocopter and Atrium along with employed engineers in the campus. EADS will partner existing companies involved in aerospace activity — like Infosys, TCS and Satyam. EADS is looking at engineering services and IT from India for its space and defence projects.