Engineering seems to be taken over by the IN flavour. IN for India, Innovation and In-vogue. Be it new-age diesel engines roaring out in Indian R&D centers, after-treatment technologies being churned up for latest emission norms or the automotives of tomorrow finding their cradles in Indian engineering centers, engineering in India, has for sure, arrived in a new avatar.

Eaton Corporation, a diversified industrial manufacturer, is witnessing a lot of horsepower in its Indian stables. The $12.4 billion company that operates across a wide gamut of systems and components for power; fluid power systems; industrial, mobile and aircraft equipment; intelligent truck drive train systems; automotive engine air management systems, power train solutions and specialty controls for performance, fuel economy and safety is buzzing with some interesting action.

Pratima Harigunani of CyberMedia News chats with Ramanath I Ramakrishnan, GM and head of Eaton India Engineering Center, as he gives a glimpse of all the things that are keeping him and the center busy.

CMN: So, what's buzzing at Eaton India?

Ramanath Ramakrishnan: We started this center four years back as a branch for fluid power systems because we already had the associated manufacturing capabilities here. Gradually we injected more design and R&D work here and grew from five to 50 and now 500 people. In the last 15 to 18 months we have become core to our international team and other three divisions i.e. electrical, truck and automotive. The center is almost a microcosm for the whole group and CTO. We have impressive growth plans ahead here. We have begun construction of a medium- and heavy-duty truck transmission and component plant in Ranjangaon, India that will have 60,000 square feet of production space and the completion of which is scheduled for the end of 2007. The new plant will house machining, heat-treating and assembly operations, and production will be sold domestically in India and will also serve Eaton's global truck customers. Eaton's India operations will be the first truly independent commercial vehicle (CV) transmission supplier in the India market. As for the India engineering center, it has emerged as one major strategic piece for Eaton R&D engineering worldwide.

CMN: How does the work happening here split between the cradle phase and the grave?

RR: We have specific areas distributed to each phase. In product and service development, we do sustenance engineering for all product lines. Also, we have a new products division, that is active in fluid power, electrical products, some next-generation transmission products in trucks, hydraulics, hybrid electric technologies and HLA (Hydraulic Launch Assist Systems). We are also leveraging technologies like computer simulation for developing virtual prototypes, fine element and stress analysis would be a big growth capability in this area.