Philips sees healthcare, lighting pushing India growth

PANAJI - The Indian arm of Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips sees a vast potential in healthcare business and has launched its first cardiovascular X-ray system developed here, with plans for exports.

The company, which reported revenues of Rs.32 billion (over $700 million) in 2008, sees the growing healthcare market in India, along with lighting and lifestyle segments, spurring the group’s growth in the coming years.

“We are focusing on healthcare in a big way. This market is set to witness 10-15 percent growth per annum,” said Murali Sivaraman, managing director and chief executive for Indian subcontinent with Philips Electronics.

“Home healthcare is an untouched, virgin place,” Sivaraman told reporters here during the group’s annual conference, which, this year, saw a number of launches, including home theatres, lighting and MP3 products.

Officials said Philips expanded its healthcare business over the past two years and acquired firms like Meditronics and Alpha X-ray Technologies in India, VMI Sistemas Medicos in Brazil and Goldway in China.

Anjan Bose, vice president for Philips Healthcare, said that Allura FC, a the multi-purpose catherisation lab developed in India, was a significant addition to the emerging markets healthcare product portfolio.

“It will be manufactured in India and exported to other countries across the globe,” he said, adding the first such lab would be installed at Karnataka’s Adarsha Hospital in Udipi later this month.

Sivaraman said along with healthcare, two other businesses were also focus area for the company — lifestyle and lighting.

In the lighting business, Philips want to bring about a major change in the way people light up their homes and offices by moving forward from compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to light emitting diodes (LEDs).

“Light emitting diodes, or LEDs, are going to be the future,” said Rajeev Chopra, the head of lighting business, adding Philips was in the forefront of research in thia area to make this technology commercially viable.

“With the Philips Ledino range, we are providing consumers at home a pure, refreshing light, which creates a natural ambience in appealing designs,” he said.

The company also launched new street lighting solutions with benefits such as energy saving, lesser maintenance cost and longer life, he explained and said these solutions had been used to beautify and illuminate many historical sites.

The sites include the famous Anandpur Sahib Gurudwara in Punjab, the Guru Teg Bahadur Memorial in New Delhi, The Ajmer Sharif Durgah, Jagmandir in Kota, The St. Andrew’s Church at Kolkata and the Clock Tower in Ludhiana.