Mumbai:

For over 20 years the technology (CFD) that has brought about a significant impact on global businesses and economy is all set to revolutionise the Indian markets in a big way. This $77-million company is expanding its research and development centre in Maharashtra.

Fluent has been operating in the subcontinent and six other countries through its wholly owned subsidiary, Fluent India, and is all set to invest at least Rs 25 crore more during the next one year in its upcoming R&D centre in Pune. The company had already invested Rs 30 crore in India in the last fiscal year.

Says Fluent Inc president and chief operating officer Dr Ferit Boysan: "We will make India our second major hub next to our headquarters in New Hampshire in the US in the next five years. Our activities in this potential market have gained momentum, so we will keep investing in this potential market through the parent company."

As part of the business strategy, Fluent India will continue to focus its efforts in a big way on Indian defence and government labs as this sector has been in the forefront of adopting cutting edge technologies like CFD. Besides this, even the educational sector has not remained untouched with this cutting-edge technology.

Fluent is looking at assisting engineering centres of Indian industry and multinational organisations in growing their CFD activities on a much larger scale. Currently, Fluent India is the largest commercial CFD centre in South Asia with the market share of over 50 per cent.

Fluent has helped many organisations worldwide achieve global competitiveness by reducing the design cycles and costs and the company has been making a significant mark in the Indian scenario as well with clients like Indian Oil, General Electric, Tata Steel, TCS, SAIL, BHEL, Infosys, Satyam, Atlas Copco, Kirloskar Copeland, Engineers India, Honeywell, Technip KTI and others.

Fluent India is already catering to the Indian subcontinent along with the Southeast Asian markets like (Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines). Dr Dipankar Choudhary, chief technology officer, Fluent Inc, says the company is also exploring the possibility of setting up a local support and sales office in Bangalore soon.