Cisco bullish on India, to expand chip design team, says CEO Chuck Robbins

India has a pro-growth strategy that is working, as its GDP numbers show, Cisco Chairman and CEO Chuck Robbins said on Wednesday, terming the country a strategic market for the company due to its scale, ambition, engineering focus and manufacturing capability.

In an interview to PTI, Robbins said Cisco plans to expand its silicon design team in India, and described the company's progress on the manufacturing front as "meaningful".

Robbins also said Cisco will bring its suite of 'sovereign critical technology' to India "over the coming months," after having rolled it out in Europe and Canada.

"The biggest opportunity we see is actually to expand our silicon design team here, so we currently have fair amount of resources in Israel, fair number in the United States, and we have a small group here that are part of that team, and we think there's a big opportunity. So that's an area of focus that we're really looking at as we go forward," he said.

India has the talent pool and the company has the operational framework and "so it is a matter of finding the talent and hiring them," he said when asked if the company would utilise the freshly-minted Semiconductor 2.0, that amongst a slew of boosters for semiconductor value chain, also incentivises design capabilities.

Cisco's global CEO said India has a pro-growth strategy, and added "I think it's working, given the GDP growth that we're seeing here."

While the US is the most important market for Cisco, Robbins said outside of America, it is India and the Middle East that are the next two big markets.

"The US is a very important market. Obviously, our most important market today. But outside the United States, the Middle East and India are the next two big areas for us we are focused on. I think those are the highest growth opportunities," Robbins said.

While Cisco is seeing growth across markets, India has been a strategic market for the company for a very long time because of its scale, ambition, engineering focus and manufacturing capability, and will remain so, he asserted.