As bauma CONEXPO INDIA 2026 prepares to bring the construction and heavy-equipment industry together at Greater Noida, much of the attention will naturally go to the machines themselves. Excavators have the drama; trucks have the size and concrete equipment has a rather effective way of announcing its presence. Filters generally do neither.
Yet somewhere between dust, heat, pressure and long operating cycles, filtration becomes critical to keeping machines and engines working as intended. That quiet positioning helps explain why MANN+HUMMEL’s India story is becoming considerably more interesting than a conventional manufacturing expansion.
The German filtration specialist is strengthening its presence in India across manufacturing, engineering, testing and technology. The important development is not simply another production facility. It is the growing range of capabilities being assembled around the Indian operation.
And increasingly, that development is being led from India itself. Sudeesh Karimbingal, Managing Director, MANN+HUMMEL India, has described the Indian engineering team’s growing role in the group’s global product-development activities. The company’s latest investments provide clear evidence of the direction in which its Indian operations are developing.
German Roots
Founded in Germany in 1941, MANN+HUMMEL has grown from its automotive filtration origins into a global filtration business spanning mobility, industrial applications, clean air, water and related technologies.
India has been part of that journey for decades. What is changing is the scale and nature of the capabilities being developed here. The Indian operation now combines manufacturing with engineering and technology activities, giving the country a more substantial role within the group’s wider development network.
That evolution is important because the India operation is no longer being viewed only through the lens of production. Engineering, testing and product development are becoming increasingly prominent parts of the proposition.
Indian Depth
The most significant development is the Global Technology & Innovation Center at Tumkur. Launched in 2026, the facility is described by MANN+HUMMEL as its largest development centre outside Germany.
It brings together advanced research laboratories, testing infrastructure, digital engineering and data analytics. The company says the centre will support filtration solutions across mobility, industrial applications, clean air and water purification. More than one-third of its global R&D workforce is also based in India, according to the company.
Karimbingal has said that Indian engineers have been deeply embedded in the group’s global product-development activities for more than 20 years.
The new centre therefore builds on an engineering capability that MANN+HUMMEL says has been developing in India over an extended period.
Technology Shift
Filtration itself is changing. The conversation is no longer confined to the familiar air, oil and fuel filters associated with conventional engines.
Modern filtration systems increasingly have to address efficiency, emissions, service requirements and the changing architecture of vehicle and industrial systems. MANN+HUMMEL’s current technology activities extend across established mobility applications as well as newer powertrain and industrial requirements.
For construction and heavy-duty equipment, the requirements are particularly demanding. Machines operate in environments where dust, heat, vibration and long duty cycles are part of everyday operation.
The filtration system therefore becomes part of a larger engineering equation involving reliability, efficiency and machine performance.
MANN+HUMMEL’s global R&D network comprises nearly 1,100 engineers, with digital engineering, simulation, data and manufacturing technologies becoming increasingly important to product development.
Factory Logic
The physical footprint is expanding alongside the engineering capability. MANN+HUMMEL has manufacturing operations in Tumkur in southern India and Bawal in the north. It has also announced plans for a new integrated manufacturing facility in Pune serving manufacturing, passenger vehicles, heavy-duty on-road and off-road applications and industrial customers. The Pune facility is therefore a planned addition, not an operational plant.
The company says the combined investment across the Tumkur technology centre and Pune initiative is expected to exceed Rs 100 crore. It currently employs around 1,250 people across its India operations and says the two locations are expected to generate an additional 300–400 employment opportunities over the following 12 months. These are company-stated figures associated with the current expansion programme.
The company also says the planned Pune manufacturing footprint is intended to position it closer to customers in western India, complementing its existing manufacturing operations.
Heavy Duty
The construction and heavy-duty equipment market provides an important application area for the company. Equipment manufacturers are looking for filtration systems capable of meeting increasingly demanding requirements around efficiency, emissions, durability and maintenance. The relationship between an equipment manufacturer and a filtration specialist consequently becomes closely connected to the machine’s overall engineering programme.
MANN+HUMMEL’s 2025 business review identifies construction and agricultural machinery among the application areas for its filtration technologies, with a strong focus on alternative-drive technologies. Its wider Indian and Asian activities also include industrial applications and the development and manufacture of industrial centrifuges.
The broader direction is consistent with the expansion of the Indian engineering and manufacturing base.
Local Strength
Localisation is another important part of the equation. It is one thing to manufacture a product in India. It is another to develop the engineering, testing and quality capabilities required to support increasingly sophisticated products.
MANN+HUMMEL’s Indian operations cover a broad range of filtration applications, including air intake, crankcase ventilation, centrifuges and oil and fuel filtration. Its Tumkur and Bawal operations also maintain internationally recognised automotive quality certifications. Together, these activities illustrate the breadth of the company’s Indian manufacturing and engineering presence.
Global India
The most interesting aspect of the India story is the growing connection between local capability and global product development.
MANN+HUMMEL says the Tumkur technology centre will support global product development and that its Indian engineering team is already deeply involved in such work. This is where Karimbingal’s role in the India story becomes particularly relevant. As Managing Director of the Indian operation, he is overseeing a business in which manufacturing, engineering and technology are becoming more closely connected.
That makes the India operation relevant not only to Indian customers but also to the company’s wider engineering network. For an industrial technology company, that is an important distinction. Manufacturing scale can be added in several locations. Engineering capability, testing infrastructure and experienced technical teams take considerably longer to develop.
Future Motion
The powertrain transition adds another dimension. Internal combustion engines remain important across commercial vehicles, construction equipment and industrial machinery. At the same time, battery-electric systems are becoming part of the equipment and vehicle landscape, creating new filtration and thermal-management requirements.
MANN+HUMMEL’s current technology portfolio includes solutions for alternative drive systems and e-mobility. Its wider technology work also includes filtration solutions for electric commercial vehicles and other emerging powertrain applications.
For a filtration specialist, this creates several parallel technology requirements rather than a single replacement cycle.
India’s engineering capability is consequently developing within a technology landscape that is becoming progressively more diverse.
Trade Floor
Seen against the machinery industry and the approach of bauma CONEXPO INDIA 2026, the MANN+HUMMEL story offers a useful perspective on the less visible side of machinery technology. The machines will naturally command the attention. They are bigger, louder and considerably easier to photograph.
But behind those machines sits a large ecosystem of suppliers whose technologies contribute to equipment performance over long operating periods.
Filtration is one of them.
MANN+HUMMEL’s India strategy is increasingly about building the engineering, manufacturing and technology capabilities required to participate in that ecosystem at a deeper level.
The planned Pune facility, the expanded Tumkur technology centre and the existing manufacturing operations together point to a company strengthening its Indian base in a measured but significant way.
With Sudeesh Karimbingal leading the India operation, the next phase is about extending capabilities that are already increasingly connected to the group’s global engineering and manufacturing network.
For MANN+HUMMEL, India is becoming a deeper industrial proposition.
And for an industry that tends to celebrate what can be seen, that may be one of the more interesting stories happening beneath the surface.
