Ricoh establishes IT R&D laboratory in India

TOKYO, JAPAN: Ricoh Co. Ltd has established an IT-focused R&D facility in Bangalore in southern India, Ricoh Innovations Pvt Ltd (RIPL). RIPL is incorporated as a subsidiary of Ricoh Innovations Inc. (RII), a 100 percent Ricoh-owned research institute in Silicon Valley, USA. RIPL will begin by creating IT solutions adapted to India's needs, incorporating leading-edge core IT technologies cultivated at RII and Ricoh. Eventually, RIPL will also search for business opportunities in similar market environments.

India, with a population of 1.2 billion, continues to enjoy strong economic growth, placing the country as fourth in GDP based on Purchasing Power Parity after Japan. One of the country’s most significant features is that the average age of the population is approximately 25. The working population will thus continue to increase. Use of the Internet in the mobile environment is expected to expand rapidly, for both work and everyday life, as the IT infrastructure continues to improve.

Ricoh does business in more than 200 countries and regions throughout the world and has a global R&D network providing products and services to the global market. RIPL reflects the understanding that local R&D is indispensable in providing core IT solutions as they apply to the needs of the Indian market. RIPL will deploy R&D for India-based technologies, promoting close collaboration with RII, which pursues its own mission of creating new value and business opportunities. RIPL will focus on fields such as education, media, entertainment, health care, and finance.

In education, for example, smartphone services will be targeted to help students in accessing related information on teaching materials or in exchanging ideas through social networks. They will do so this by applying Ricoh Visual Search technology developed by RII. These application concepts surfaced in the course of trials with students at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology even before the establishment of RIPL, and the collaboration with IT students will continue as research progresses.

"We believe that products and services which enjoy success in the Indian market can in turn succeed in newly emerging markets in Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, which have a combined population totaling 2.5 billion people," said Hiroshi Kobayashi, Ricoh corporate executive VP and chairman of RII. "Beyond that, solutions competitive in emerging markets have the possibility of spawning new innovations in advanced nations (reverse innovation)."

RIPL is committed to exploring new IT solutions, promoting the fusion of innovative technologies with local needs.