India, Sep 07: India has evolved from being a market where global technologies were introduced to a country helping imagine, engineer and develop technology for the world, Samsung South West Asia President and CEO JB Park said as Samsung marks 30 years in India.
“What inspires me most about India is that it constantly exceeds expectations,” Park said. “Today, we don’t look at India just as a market of 1.4 billion people. We see India as a place where the future of technology is being imagined, developed and led.”
Samsung entered India in 1995. Over the past three decades, as India transformed into one of the world’s fastest-growing digital and innovation economies, Samsung expanded its manufacturing footprint, strengthened its research and design capabilities and invested in building an innovation ecosystem in the country.
“The story of Samsung in India has never been about selling products. It has been about growing together,” Park said. “But more importantly, we evolved from bringing technology to India to creating technology with India.”
Creating Technology with India
India’s scale, diversity and rapidly evolving technology landscape are increasingly shaping how Samsung approaches innovation.
Samsung’s R&D engineers in Bengaluru and Noida work alongside colleagues across its global R&D network, contributing to technologies and experiences for India as well as the rest of the world.
“India challenges us to innovate differently,” Park said. “Building products for a country of this scale and diversity means designing solutions that are intuitive, inclusive and relevant to millions of people with very different needs. Those innovations often go on to benefit consumers around the world.”
As artificial intelligence transforms consumer technology, Samsung’s engineers in India are also collaborating with global teams to develop next-generation AI experiences.
“AI will only be meaningful if it solves real problems for real people. And, there are few places that challenge us to do that better than India,” Park said.
Investing in the People Who Will Build What Comes Next
Samsung’s investments in India have also extended beyond manufacturing and R&D to talent, skills, education and innovation.
“Technology does not create progress on its own. People do,” Park said. “We believe human potential is the most important technology platform of all.”
Samsung is nurturing future innovators through programmes such as Samsung Innovation Campus and Solve for Tomorrow. Samsung Innovation Campus equips young people with future technology skills including AI and coding, while Solve for Tomorrow gives young innovators a platform, mentorship and support to turn ideas into solutions to real-world problems.
Now in its fifth year in India, Solve for Tomorrow is also evolving beyond a competition into what Park described as an “innovation pipeline”, as young people identify problems in their communities and use technology to develop potential solutions.
“Young people are using technology to solve some of the most pressing problems faced by society,” Park said. “That is exactly the kind of innovation India needs now and in future.”
Looking ahead, Park said Samsung’s ambition is to help India lead the next wave of innovations that can improve lives around the world.
As Samsung marks three decades in the country, he said its legacy in India should ultimately be measured not only by the products, manufacturing ecosystem and research capabilities it has helped build, but by the people and ideas it has helped nurture.
“I don’t believe our legacy will ultimately be defined by the devices we made,” Park said. “I believe it will be defined by the dreams we helped unlock.”
“If Samsung can play even a small role in helping shape that generation, it would be our greatest achievement in India,” he added. “Because the most enduring technologies are not always the ones we build. Sometimes, they are the ideas we ignite in people.”