Friday, October 21 2005 16:46 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: As part of its global strategy to develop India as one of its largest R and D centre outside the US, networking major, Cisco Systems today (Oct 21, 2005) announced its plans to invest US dollar 50 million in developing a new one million square foot campus on the city outskirts here.

The new integrated campus foot at Sajapur, officially launched today, was expected to house 3000 staff, including R and D, IT, Sales and customer support teams in India, when completed by June 2007, CISCO President and CEO John Chambers told reporters.

The USD 50 million would be in addition to the 1.1 billion dollars investment in India announced earlier.

"India has been and continues to be a strategic market for Cisco in terms of business opportunities and as a base for outstanding engineering talent. With the launch of our new Campus in Bangalore today, Cisco will be well placed to continue building our presence in India, as a critical part of our R and D efforts and as the domestic market for networking products and solutions continues to expand", he said.

Explaining its focus on India, he said the drivers of growth in India was its innovation and partnership, in addition to the huge pool of talent, its research and development capabilities, Chambers said.

"India is going to be next major transition market", he said.

The key driving force in the coming years would be networking. "Networking will be the most scalable price performance platform since the microprocessor", Chamber known for his sense to spot market transition said.

"The networking excitement is going to be buzz of the future", Chambers said.

Identifying market transition and focussing on it much before other competitors would be the drivers of growth he said adding that building, acquiring, partnership and innovation would all act as key parameters for growth.

He could envisage India leading in innovation rather than following global trend, he said while harping on its huge pool of talent and innovation capabilities.

Reiterating his earlier commitment, he said Cisco would invest 1.1 billion dollars over the next three years, the largest investment announced by Cisco outside the US in scope of activity and size. Of the total investment 750 million dollars have been committed to R and D while 150 million dollars would be used for providing financing and leasing solutions to Cisco partners and customers, he said.

The company would also allocate 100 dollars to Cisco Systems Capital for investing in start up companies and invest as much in customer support operations. It would be investing in companies working on networking technologies, he said.

Besides expansion, Cisco's thrust area would also be education. In the next three years, the company hopes to churn out 51,761 Cisco certified professionals.

Outlining Cisco's vision of participating in the education process of the country, he said that as part of its corporate social responsibility, it was 'keen in returning back' by focussing on the field of education.

On its plans of manufacturing some of its products here, he said manufacturing would happen on the lines of contractual partnership. An update on the manufacturing plans would be possible to make only next year, he said.

Replying to a query on potential competitors and partners, Chambers said, "We see both potential rivals and partners emerging from the Asia Pacific region".

"We had 10 years ago seen China as potential investment and spotted India as a potential investment four years ago", Chambers said adding that it would continue to invest in China along with its major investments in India. However, he placed India ahead of China in terms of expected growth.

Sounding bullish on Cisco in India, he said, that the company had announced an investment of 200 million dollars in 2001 but had invested in excess of 400 million dollars in the country. Its new investment in India reflects Cisco's prediction of India growing to be a major market. "We want India to be a critical part of all our activities", he added.

Cisco had shown a growth of 50 percent in India over the last two years and in the next three years, the company expected an excess of 30 per cent growth.

He also reiterated the company's committment to support e-governance programme by providing networking equipment required to build the infrastructure in 100 villages

Harping on the central government's positive attitude, he said, "Your PM is an amazing man who really cares and understands the changing needs".

To a query on the ongoing tussle between the state government and the IT sector, he said, that Cisco was committed to discharging its corporate responsibilities and would replicate the programmes carried elsewhere in the world in India too. He, however, did not state any specific plans for the state.