Beyond Printing: How DNP's New R&D Hub in India Is Shaping the Future of Mobility and Healthcare 

Within India, Hyderabad stands out as a city where startups across diverse fields are actively building businesses. In the two areas DNP is currently focused on, mobility and medical healthcare, Hyderabad offers both a proving ground for electric vehicle (EV) demonstrations and a strong pharmaceutical industry base. That combination was the deciding factor in our decision to set up here.

Q. Why did you choose IIT Hyderabad as your research partner?

Ueki: IIT Hyderabad is one of India’s top science and engineering universities, known for its strong research capabilities, particularly in electrical engineering and chemistry, and excellent talent.

Since its founding, IIT Hyderabad has received support for campus development through Japanese yen-loan Official Development Assistance (ODA), and it has long served as a hub for Japan-India academic and industrial collaboration. DNP highly values both these strong ties with Japan and the university's commitment to research that leads to real-world impact. The campus is also home to TiHAN (Technology Innovation Hub on Autonomous Navigation), a testing ground for electric vehicles.

We believed that combining DNP's and IIT Hyderabad's strengths would accelerate both the creation of research outcomes and their implementation in society, and that is why we began this joint research with them.

Q. What are your thoughts on being involved in launching this India base?

Ishikawa: India carries relatively low geopolitical risk and is an important partner for Japan’s economic security. From a management strategy standpoint as well, we regard India as one of the most promising growth markets.

Beyond the sheer scale of its population, India’s science and engineering students and researchers bring diligence, ambition, and a strong sense of speed. As Japan’s shrinking population makes it harder to secure top talent at home, building talent pipelines that start in India will be one of our key strategies going forward.

By working together with these students and researchers to solve local challenges and create products and services that meet real needs, DNP will keep delivering new value.  By working together with these students and researchers to solve local challenges and create products and services that meet real needs, DNP will keep delivering new value. 

Q. What are the current research themes?

Ishikawa:  As Mr. Ueki has mentioned earlier, we are focusing on the areas of mobility and healthcare, and we currently have two main research themes. The first theme is developing and demonstrating wireless power supply systems for EVs. DNP holds the largest global market share for battery pouches (the exterior packaging material) for lithium-ion batteries, which are widely used in EVs and electronic devices,  and we’ve long driven technology development for next-generation mobility.

Building on that, we combined our precision metal micro-processing technology with post-processing techniques for laminating different materials, and succeeded in transforming what used to be heavy, bulky wireless-charging coils into remarkably thin, lightweight sheets. At DNP R&D Hyderabad, we’re using this sheet-type coil technology as the foundation for designing, developing, and commercializing a wireless power supply system that could let EVs charge while driving.

Looking ahead, as we work toward an advanced mobility society that includes autonomous driving, we aim to repeatedly test and refine the system based on local needs, contributing to the spread of EVs and the growth of the market in India.

The second theme is developing synthesis routes for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Producing APIs that meet the extremely high purity standards required means controlling molecular-level structure and building an efficient process.  

For this, we're leveraging the precision organic chemical synthesis and process-development expertise amassed by DNP Fine Chemicals Utsunomiya Co., Ltd., a DNP Group company that manufactures generic APIs. We're factoring in cost, yield, and scalability to develop the optimal synthesis method for these APIs, with the goal of expanding access to affordable, high-quality generic medicines in India.

• Yield: The ratio between the amount theoretically expected to be extracted and the amount actually obtained when extracting a target substance from a raw material using chemical methods.

Q. Why would a “printing company” venture into research in these fields?

Ishikawa: DNP’s history is essentially a story of continuously applying printing and information technologies to solve a wide range of social challenges. Our strength in printing on paper and virtually any material is well known, but if you break the printing process down further, it’s really a collection of technologies: materials development, microfabrication , precision coating, post-processing, and evaluation and analysis.

By refining and recombining these technologies, DNP has delivered value wherever it’s needed, from semiconductors and displays to medical and healthcare applications like pharmaceutical packaging.

Both the wireless power supply systems project and the API synthesis work are extensions of that same trajectory. Taking the precision we’ve honed through printing and reshaping it into something entirely new in a completely different field is what makes DNP’s approach to R&D distinctive.