L&T Launches a Development Outpost in Jerusalem

L&T Technology Services Ltd., the engineering service subsidiary of Indian-headquartered conglomerate Larsen & Toubro Ltd., is opening a development center in Jerusalem, the company announced Tuesday.

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L&T is also expanding its Tel Aviv sales offices, which will now offer the company's full range of engineering services.

The new center's operations will be focused on end to end ASIC solutions, hardware and software based security solutions, and video solutions for the media, entertainment, telecom, automotive and IoT industries.

The center has been under construction for a few months. It already employs 100 engineers and software developers, said Keshab Panda, CEO and managing director of the company, in an interview with Calcalist Monday. He added that the company intends to recruit 300 additional employees.

A lot of the company's global customers have outposts in Israel, said Mr. Panda, and so L&T has decided that part of being a global technology company is establishing an Israel-based center. L&T doesn't necessarily think of it as a center that will provide services to the Israeli market, he added, but as center catering to international customers. One component of the product can be manufactured in India, another in the U.S. and the third in Israel.

The challenge is making the L&T brand known in Israel, said Michael Rubinov, vice president at L&T. He added that L&T is very well-known in India since the company built the Mumbai airport, among other projects, and the company's logo is widely spread.

The world is progressing towards digital manufacturing, Mr. Rubinov said, and L&T intends to play a big role in that change. The company is moving towards a future where all communication occurs through the cloud, and that required advanced security knowledge like the kind found abundantly in Israel, he added.

When asked about the possibility of making acquisitions in Israel, Mr. Panda answered that while L&T has no specific company in its sight, the company is always searching for possible acquisitions. L&T usually acquires companies that develop a technology L&T needs and doesn't have but would take too long to develop on its own, Mr. Panda told Calcalist.

When asked about India's current status as an exporter of technology workers, Mr. Panda said that in the past, many young people arrived in the U.S. for higher education and then stayed, but today less of them are interested in leaving India.

"The startup scene is booming," he said, and there are a lot of opportunities locally. The pay has also significantly risen, he added, and like in Israel, many international companies have opened large offices in India, among them Microsoft and Intel.

Many Indian-based startups operating today focus on fintech, especially in the domains of banking and insurance, Mr. Panda explained. But many startups also focus on consumer-related domains, offering services that parallel Amazon and Uber.

L&T has around 11,000 employees spread across 15 global delivery centers and 28 global sales offices, and also across 38 innovation labs in India. The company has customers in 133 countries, over half of them in the U.S.

In April L&T announced it will develop a smart office campus in Israel for an undisclosed leading technology company as part of its partnership with Microsoft.