Digital India: Cisco to invest over Rs 600 crore in India
The financial commitment of US $100 million (over Rs 600 crore) includes an allocation of US $40 million (over 250 crore) to promote digital start-ups across the country.
After the meeting of its executive chairman John Chambers with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi today in New Delhi, the US-technology giant Cisco said it will invest over US $100 million in India for promoting digitisation, start-up, skills development and digital education.
The financial commitment of US $100 million (over Rs 600 crore) includes an allocation of US $40 million (over 250 crore) to promote digital start-ups across the country.
According to company official, the focus will be on next generation technologies such as security, cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT) as well as digital plays in smart cities, financial services, healthcare and e-governance.
The company has also set a goal of creating a pipeline of 250,000 skilled students in India by 2020. In order to achieve this, Cisco plans to open 6 innovation labs, 3 centres of expertise and funded university collaborations across different states.
These announcements are in line with the company’s recent commitment to set-up a manufacturing unit in Pune for promoting Make in India initiative and India as an export hub.
Also, on Thursday in Visakhapatnam during the launch of AP FiberNet, a project aimed at providing on-demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 to 15 Mbps for all households in Andhra Pradesh and 1 to 10 Gbps for all institutions by 2018, Cisco made several announcements towards driving fiber grid, IoT, and smart cities project in the state.
Cisco will set-up an Internet of Everything (IoE) Innovation Centre in Visakhapatnam and an advanced technology center of excellence and research lab in the Institute of Digital Technology (IDT), Tirupati, focused on cyber security, smart city and manufacturing solutions.
Cisco will also sponsor and collaborate with Andhra University in Visakhapatnam on a 12-month research program to identify and explore the possibility of developing and customising digital technologies and solutions for rural Andhra Pradesh.
In addition to this, company plans for the expansion of Cisco Networking Academy in 70 colleges in Andhra Pradesh to train approximately 10,000 new students in the state over next three years.
