DuPont Co. plans to open its first research center in India, a $22.5 million investment that will focus on polymers, molecular biology and bio-informatics.
The center in Hyderabad, India, will work on ``integrated science'' bridging the U.S.-based company's traditional materials science and chemistry platforms with research in biology, and will do both basic and applications research, DuPont said Feb. 2.
The center, which will employ 300, will be operating by early 2008 and also will do research in other DuPont business areas. Wilmington-based DuPont currently employs 700 in India.
It's the company's seventh major research and development center outside the United States, joining those in Shanghai; Utsunomiya, Japan; Hsinchu, Taiwan; and centers in Germany, Switzerland and Canada.
Altogether, DuPont has 35 research centers outside the United States and 40 within the country.
The company said its business in India is growing 25 percent a year.