CISCO TO TRIPLE HEADCOUNT TO 10,000 IN INDIA
New Delhi, October 29, 2007 (IANS)

Cisco Systems Inc will be increasing its headcount in India to 10,000 by 2010. The company is also on target to invest $1.16 billion in the country, chairman and CEO John Chambers said here Monday. The $35-billion company announced in 2005 that it would be spending $1.16 billion in strengthening its presence here and ramping up its employee strength. Chambers also indicated that almost 20% of the firm's higher management team would be based in India by 2012.

"We are very much on target," Chambers told reporters on the sidelines of the Public Sector Summit organised by National Institute of Smart Government (NISG). Earlier, while delivering the keynote address at the summit, Chambers said the company is bullish about India due to its huge educated talent pool coupled with a business environment that enables long-term strategic partnerships.

"We came here because of the talent coupled with an entrepreneurship that has the ability to do business and innovate," Chambers, who is currently on a three-day visit to India, stated.

"India and its companies' abilities lie in its ability to partner with global companies and it is now the hottest growth area for us," he added.

Chambers would be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath later in the evening.

US-based Cisco is a communications networking major. Cisco Systems International BV, a wholly owned subsidiary, supplies equipments, such as switches and routers, in India.