The new Design Center is the eleventh GM design studio worldwide—and situated in one of the fastest-growing emerging car markets in the world

General Motors has opened a new Design Center in Bangalore, India. The new facility is the eleventh GM design studio worldwide and is of significant importance as it is situated in one of the fastest-growing emerging car markets in the world.

In a move to expand GM’s operations and design services in India and other parts of the world, the GM India Design Studio, which is located at the GM Technical Center-India (GMTCI), is India’s first digital design studio. Its new infrastructure consists of technologies such as a clay milling capability along with supporting equipment and virtual reality technology. High-tech visualization equipment will allow for surface quality reviews, which are needed to support interior trim work, and will also enhance the digital (Alias) surfacing skills of the GMTCI team through their interaction with clay.

“The design studio in Bangalore will serve as an important component of GM’s 11-member global design network,” said GM Vice President of Global Design, Ed Welburn, presiding over the inauguration of the new facility. “By leveraging the unmatched global resources and best practices of the GM Group, it will carry out important projects for GM in India as well as work with other design facilities on a worldwide basis.”

The GM India Design Studio will complement the four-year-old GMTCI—one of four GM technical centers in the Asia Pacific region—which has a base of more than 900 employees carrying out research and development and engineering work for GM in India and globally. In addition to supporting a global design strategy for GMTCI, the studio will become a center of expertise for interior trim and component surfacing, and also play a key role for the GM Design network as a ‘listening post’ in India, gathering information to better understand local product design requirements. It will employ over 60 people by the end of this year.

The new facility will work with GM’s Halol manufacturing facility in Gujarat, which manufactures the Chevrolet Tavera, Optra, Aveo, Aveo U-VA, SRV and Spark, and contribute to the mid-cycle enhancement of these existing models and the advanced design of future products. GM is planning to build a new manufacturing plant in Maharashtra in the fourth quarter of 2008 to further strengthen its global presence. Source: businessweek

The operators add 5.82mn new subscribers in November Vs 5.71mn new users added in October. Bharti Airtel adds 2.05mn new users taking its total to 52.96mn

The country’s GSM service providers added 5.82mn new subscribers in November as against 5.71mn new users added in October, data released by the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) shows.

With this, their total subscriber base now stands at 165.83mn, up 3.6% from October. At the end of November last year, GSM operators had a total subscriber base of 100.79mn, the COAI data reveals.

Bharti Airtel – the biggest GSM operator – added 2.05mn new users last month, taking its total to 52.96mn while Vodafone Essar saw net additions of 1.38mn, boosting its overall customer base to 38.56mn.

Idea Cellular added more than 8 lakh new subscribers, taking its total to 20.22mn while Aircel witnessed net additions of 501,588, lifting its total to 9.02mn. Source: indiainfoline