Networking giant Cisco today said it plans to make India a global export hub for its products, after recently having started manufacturing access points and routers at a facility in Pune.
The US-based company also expects to complete 50 digitisation projects by the end of the year across India, which is part of its USD 100 million investment announced last year.
“Our roadmap is very clear. Our first intention was to start with 5 or 6 products that we wanted to make in India for domestic market such as access points, routers etc.
“The second stage is to make that centre (Pune) a global export hub. That is the next stage we are working on right now,” Cisco President India and SAARC Dinesh Malkani said at the Cisco India Summit 2017.
In March, Cisco had unveiled its first ‘Made in India’ product. India is the 12th country to house Cisco’s manufacturing facility apart from nations like the US, Mexico, China, Brazil and Malaysia.
“We are also encouraging our ecosystem providers to set shop here. We held a conference in Bengaluru last year where we have invited 80-90 of our global suppliers and showed them what can be done here…I hope that overtime this will be our global supply chain centre,” Malkani said.
Asked about the USD 100 million investment the firm had announced in India last year, he said, “As part of our country digitisation acceleration investment of USD 100 million, 50 of our digitisation projects across India will be completed by the end of the year.”
These 50 projects include T-hub in Telangana, Fetri village and wi-fi project in Rajasthan and iCreate in Gujarat.
He added that in the next phase of digitisation initiatives, the company is collaborating closely with state governments for projects, including the addition of six new innovation labs and six centres of excellence.
India accounts for a significant portion of the company’s global headcount with a majority of them in R&D roles. The company files about 2 patents a week from India, Malkani said.
Cisco has also invested in 25-26 startups in India and is actively looking for more companies that are working in the Internet of Things (IoT) and security space.