The central government's move to encourage manufacturing in India received a boost as the Denmark-headquartered global climate and energy efficiency major Danfoss Group has commissioned a new facility at Oragadam on the outskirts of Chennai at a cost of Rs 500 crore.

"The new facility is a part of our attempt to not only address the growing India market opportunity but also use the country as a export base for the Asia-Pacific region," Kim Fausing, Executive VP and COO of Danfoss, told Business Today.

Admitting that the company was encouraged by the new government's push to boost manufacturing, Fausing said: "We will leverage the huge talent base to not merely cater to the domestic market but will push for exports from here. India is at the same stage that our Chinese operations were quite some time back and markets like India and China will play a bigger role in our future growth."

Danfoss now gets about 60 per cent of its revenues from outside of the European Union. The Oragadam plant is spread over 50 acre and has both manufacturing facilities as well as an R&D set-up.

Danfoss says while its offerings have been sold in the India market for several decades, it entered the country on its own in 1999 and today employs 650 people. The commissioning of the new plant will create more jobs.

Ravichandran Purushothaman, President of Danfoss India, said that less than 2.5 per cent of India's horticultural produce is processed compared to more than 60 per cent in China. Similar is the case with value-added milk processing.

"Efficient cold chain logistics can dramatically alter the rural economy and we are working with the eco-system to make it happen, since we are major players in refrigeration and air-conditioning, globally ."

Danfoss, a family owned and privately held company, had revenues of $5.7 billion in 2013.