Mumbai: General Motors Corp, the world's largest automaker, has set up a design centre in India, to support its global operations.

The GM India Design Studio in Bangalore will cater to local requirements, as also to its global models and advanced design of future products, GM said in a statement. The design lab will have 100 professionals involved in styling the car, it added.

The India Design Lab will be an integral part of the GM Technical Centre in Bangalore which currently employs close to 900 professionals, it said.

"This is an important step in GM's growth in this crucial market," Karl Slym, GM India President and Managing Director, said.

GM makes the Chevrolet Tavera, Chevrolet Optra, Chevrolet Aveo and Chevrolet Spark in its plant in Gujarat and is building another plant in Maharashtra to take its capacity in India to over 225,000 units.

"We have 11 such studios across the globe designing our cars and the India centre, to start with, will focus on tweaking to perfection the interiors of our models which will hit the roads during 2012," said Ed Welburn, VP (Global Design), GM.

The India lab will be a centre of expertise for interior trim and component surfacing, and will be enabled further to progress towards developing a full studio capability.

"With help from technologies such as clay milling capability, along with supporting equipment and virtual reality technology, the India studio will contribute to the mid-cycle enhancement of existing models and the advanced design of future products," Welburn said.

General Motors proposes to make India an export hub for small cars.