New Delhi: Engineering group, Siemens is planning to invest $346 million in India over three years, mostly to make wind turbines to tap into a rapidly expanding market for renewable energy, reports Reuters. The firm is also planning to hire around 8,000 employees in India by 2012, taking its workforce to 25,000 in the Asian nation, but said this was not a move to shift production to low-cost countries. "Not at all. It doesn't mean that," CEO Peter Loescher replied when asked if Siemens would shift operations to countries like India. "It means exactly the opposite. We're taking advantage of the Indian growth opportunity, we're adding specifically tailored products." Siemens had previously announced that it would cut 2,000 jobs in Germany and was eyeing reductions in other locations on falling demand, adding that it would take time before production returned to pre-crisis peaks of 2007/08. Siemens will begin work on a wind turbine plant in two to three weeks and begin shipments from 2012. The plant will have an initial annual capacity of 200 megawatts (MW) and would be later ramped up to 500 MW, according to India Chief Armin Bruck.