CLEARING THE AIR. The vehicle test cell at Horiba India’s plant in Chakan, Pune
This June, Horiba achieved a market cap of ¥1 trillion ($661.12 billion), putting the spotlight on the low-profile 73-year-old Japanese company, a leader in the precision and scientific instruments space. Think of the routine blood tests you do, and chances are that the analysers or instrumentation for those tests are Horiba’s. So also the stringent exhaust emission tests that vehicles undergo have Horiba’s hand in them. In sectors ranging from the auto industry to medical diagnostics and more, Horiba is the unseen giant testing for quality, safety, and stability, among other vital parameters.
The conglomerate has diversified strategically to take its precise measurement instrumentation to all the areas with the biggest buzz — be it hydrogen, semiconductors or quantum research. And India is central to Horiba’s ambitions in all these areas. Earlier this year, in February, Horiba — which is celebrating its 20th year in India — acquired Ahmedabad-based Pristine Deeptech, a company that specialises in using lab-grown diamonds for quantum research and next-generation semiconductors.
Rajeev Gautam, President, Horiba India, describes how the mass flow controllers the Japanese company makes are critical in semiconductor fabrication as they precisely measure and regulate the flow of gases and liquids. “We are world No. 1 as far as mass flow controllers go,” he says. The device is manufactured at Horiba’s plant in Chakan, Pune, where it also conducts tests for the auto industry. And now it tests hydrogen too.
Two years on, in 2028, the world will celebrate the centenary of Sir CV Raman’s discovery that when a beam of coloured light enters a liquid, some of the light scattered by the liquid is of a different colour. The Raman effect, as it came to be known, is one of the most valuable research tools today with thousands of applications. Japanese company Horiba plans to be at the forefront of the celebrations. For it is a global leader in Raman spectroscopy — a chemical analysis technique used to identify molecules by measuring how they scatter monochromatic laser light. The worldwide Raman spectroscopy market is estimated to be around $4 billion in 2026.
Horiba gained its leadership in Raman spectroscopy through its acquisition of French optics and instrumentation company Jobin Yvon in 1997. Jobin Yvon, founded in 1819, was one of the first producers of commercial Raman microscopes. According to Rajeev Gautam, President, Horiba India, “Raman spectroscopy has a huge application. You will be surprised to know that diamond’s purity can be tested by it. In the southern part of India, a lot of our customers use it to test adulteration in oil,” he says. Recently, a major saree brand approached Horiba to use Raman Spectroscopy to test the purity of silks. The light is shining on the Indian Nobel laureate’s magnificent discovery!
“With hydrogen, the major challenge is safety because it is volatile and inflammable. At our facility in Pune you can bring your product that runs on hydrogen and get it tested.”
He says Horiba India is also staying close to the action in quantum research. “We are connected to IIT-Mumbai and IIT-Delhi. Wherever there is quantum research, we are present,” he says.
Horiba has divided its testing services into three verticals — energy and environment, under which it has emission testing, water testing and so on; materials and semiconductor; and biosciences and healthcare. It has three plants in India — at Nagpur (for medical testing), Haridwar and Chakan.
“In India, we have become a 600-people company from five when we started 20 years ago,” says Gautam. “In the next 10 to 15 years, Horiba is looking at India’s scientific pool as its growth engine,” he says.
He says the Japanese company is betting on Indian scientific talent because it believes the country will soon witness something similar to what is happening in China, where there is a reverse brain-drain with its top talent returning from the US to set up companies back home. “Second, with all our IITs, we are sitting on a lot of scientific and tech talent.”
Horiba India has consciously entrenched itself in many of the IITs. With IIT-Roorkee, for instance, it is working on a drone-based irrigation project. “One major area we are looking at is solving the country’s water problem,” he says.
By embedding itself into IIT labs, Horiba India ends up getting a lot of future business. As Gautam says, PhD students who have worked on Horiba’s testing equipment at the labs return as customers when facing a problem at their workplace.
The India chapter has already delivered many solutions for Horiba globally, such as the chassis dynamometer developed for both domestic use and exports. “We have manufactured it for three-wheelers and four-wheelers,” says Gautam.
Horiba India offers a range of scientific studies for global clients. One of these projects involved wood analysis to determine the age of a wood sample, he says.
Gautam, who used to be a serious cricketer in his younger days, wants to double the business in India in the next five years. The pitch in India is perfect for Horiba’s areas of expertise, he feels.
Published on June 22, 2026
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