Cisco looks up to India with renewed Business interests

In June 2015, when John T Chambers, Chairman and CEO of Cisco visited India, he made a commitment towards manufacturing by investing USD 1.74 billion in the country. The recent announcement of Cisco launching its India manufacturing operations and digital partnership with the government of Maharashtra is in line with that commitment. It can be seen as a crucial step taken to accentuate the Digital India program as also affirming Cisco’s commitment to this market.

As of now, the partnership will enable Cisco to manufacture and roll out a diverse product portfolio in India to support the government’s Make in India initiative. However, over time, according to Cisco’s CEO, Chuck Robbins, the company wants to build up the capacity of the facility to take up orders to cater to other markets as well.

The manufacturing facility which is likely to come up in Pune is said to produce and ship orders for customers in India as well as take up operations for testing, development, logistics and in-house repair capabilities.

Cisco has been operational in India for the last 21 years and the country has been playing an important role in Cisco’s charted growth. In these years of operation, Cisco has made 3 big commitments so far. The first was when the company decided to make India its second global headquarters, and Chuck Robbins, who has taken charge last July, feels that it has been one of the best decisions Cisco has taken, considering the talent pool and the engineering expertise available. The second is Cisco’s commitment to align with PM Modi’s Digital India agenda and the third strategic step is that of Cisco’s decision to open a manufacturing hub in Maharashtra. As a matter of fact, India is one among the many countries (the other being France, Germany, UK, Israel, Mexico) where Cisco is engaged at the head-of-states level to take forward the digital transformation plan in accordance with the vision of the leader of the country. There is still a lot to be done on part of Cisco before the project gets going and fast track it as per commitments, and not forgetting the challenges that will crop up. But what needs lauding is Cisco’s growing interest in the market and identifying the business opportunities that can subsequently mean more revenues for the company.

Additionally, Cisco also announced its ongoing commitment to accelerate Digital Maharashtra, including several initiatives to ensure that all of India’s citizens benefit from the power of connectivity. These initiatives include -

Smart City Solutions in Nagpur: Cisco will roll out Smart City Solutions in Nagpur to enable city-wide network connectivity, smart & secure Wi-Fi hotspots and smart safety & surveillance solutions. The various citizen services enabled by smart cities architecture, like smart transport, solid waste management, smart lighting, environmental sensors, and smart parking, will be integrated on Cisco’s City Digital Platform.

Dharavi eCommerce Hub: At the ceremony, Cisco showcased how it was helping digitize Sri Ganesh Vidya Mandir High School by providing the students with a virtual classroom, digital learning and highly secure Internet connectivity. After school hours, local entrepreneurs and start-ups will be able to use the school as a platform for local innovation and help make Dharavi an e-commerce hub.

Expansion of Cisco Networking Academy Program: The company announced plans to establish up to 25 Cisco Networking Academies to train approximately 10,000 students in Maharashtra by 2020.

Wi-Fi, Smart Education and Smart Healthcare to Digitize Fetri Village: Cisco announced a new initiative to digitize Fetri village in the Kato Tehsil of Nagpur district in Maharashtra. With the intention to build a Digital Village, Cisco will deploy key technologies including Wi-Fi, smart healthcare, and smart education in an upper primary government school in Fetri.

Cisco to Collaborate on Broadband Infrastructure: Cisco will collaborate on the state-wide rollout of broadband infrastructure to accelerate the Digital Maharashtra vision.

The launch of the manufacturing operations took place in the presence of the chief minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis; the CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Amitabh Kant; Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, government of India; Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins; Irving Tan, senior vice president, Cisco Asia Pacific and Japan; Dinesh Malkani, president, Cisco India & SAARC and Jun Kim, vice president, Cisco Supply Chain Operations.