PerkinElmer, Inc., a global technology leader in Health Sciences and Photonics, has announced that it had acquired the remaining minority interest in PerkinElmer India Pvt. Ltd. from Labindia Instruments Pvt. Ltd. The transaction establishes PerkinElmer India Ltd. as a wholly owned subsidiary of PerkinElmer and underscores the company's commitment to supporting customers in India's thriving life science and analytical instrumentation markets.

"India represents a key growth market for PerkinElmer and we are committed to supporting the changing needs of the country's rapidly expanding health sciences market," said Gregory L Summe, chairman and chief executive officer, PerkinElmer, Inc in a release here. "The establishment of a 100 per cent direct operation in India will allow our customers to maintain their strong relationships with in-country sales and service experts, while providing them an increased level of applications and technical support, as well as direct access to a wider range of PerkinElmer products."

To further support its growth in the region, PerkinElmer plans to open a new India headquarters in Mumbai, as well as open a technical support and applications centre in the second half of 2007. PerkinElmer India currently, employs approximately 170 people in Bangalore, Baroda, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkatta, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Thane.

PerkinElmer also announced the appointment of Jai Shankar as president, PerkinElmer India. Jai will be responsible for setting the strategic direction of PerkinElmer's business development activities across India, and overseeing the marketing, selling and support of PerkinElmer's full product and services portfolio to the country's growing community of scientists and researchers.

Jai brings to his new role extensive experience in sales and marketing, operations, new business development, strategic planning and P&L management. He joins PerkinElmer from Novartis Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., where he led its global services organization. Prior to this, Jai was with Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) and Unilever. While at GSK, he was responsible for its supply chain function and later managed the growth of a US$150 million business unit.