Since 2009, we have deployed about $7 billion in acquisitions, including the larger Dionex, Phadia and One Lambda deals. Acquisitions and integrations are among our core competencies, regardless of the economic environment. Just to cite an example, we have successfully managed the Dionex integration, delivering operating income from revenue synergies, cost synergies and tax efficiencies. Some of the other acquisitions we have successfully completed in the recent past are Ahura Scientific, Fermentas, Finnzymes, BRAHMS, TREK Diagnostics and Doe & Ingalls. Each of these has also brought on board some great talent and transformed our competitive position.

Your company is generating about 15 percent of its revenue from emerging markets. What factors are favoring your business opportunities?
An important part of our growth strategy is to increase our presence in Asia Pacific and emerging markets. At the time of our merger in 2006 that created Thermo Fisher Scientific, only 10 percent of our revenue came from Asia Pacific and emerging markets. Today it is 20 percent and in five years we expect it to be at least 25 percent. Our tremendous success in China, India and other parts of these exciting markets has shown that we have a proven strategy.

What will be your strategies to improve this growth to 25 percent in the coming years?
There are various initiatives that we are adopting to propel our growth in APAC and emerging markets in the coming years. We continue to scale up our commercial presence in these regions. As of now, we have about 5,600 people in APAC and emerging markets, with 960 in India alone. You could say that we have the largest footprint in emerging markets within our industry. We have already doubled our business in the past five years from these emerging markets, and our goal is to reach revenues of about $ 3 billion by 2016.

Last year, we established an APAC Chromatography Center of Excellence in Ahmedabad in India to support customers in India and APAC on method development and to provide faster solutions for their complex R&D and QC problems. Our demo center in Mumbai and training center at Nasik are also accessed by our customers to help them chose the right technology.

Our state-of-the-art clinical trial services facility at Ahmedabad offers world-class services for our Indian and international customers, including comparator sourcing, storage, packaging, labeling and global logistics. We have also grown our chemicals business, (acquired from Qualigens) by investing in toll- conversion facilities, quality procedures and a new centralized warehouse.