 "Clarity on global trade issues to decide future investments in India: Cisco")
Cisco chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Chuck Robbins has said that he would wait for clarity on global trade policies before taking an investment decision on India. He, however, believes that India is a viable hub for exports.
“I think the global trade dynamics right now needs to get settled down so we actually can think through how it impacts our longer-term plans. But obviously India is a big part of it,” said Robbins during a press briefing in Mumbai.
He did not comment on what would be the future investment plans for India.
Robbin’s said that India is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. “If you look over the next five to 10 years, there's no other place where you would expect the growth that we should see here,” he said.
The San Jose-headquartered company started manufacturing in India about 18 months ago with a single product and is in the process of adding two more. Robbins said India is now a “viable” place for export.
Last year, Cisco inaugurated its first manufacturing unit near Chennai. While the company had not shared the investment figures, it had said that the centre will help generate more than $1.3 billion annually in exports and domestic production.
Globally, Cisco currently manufactures networking switches and routers in multiple locations in Asia including Korea, China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore. Cisco designs, manufactures, and tests key switches in China using optical, powerline, WLAN, and media access control technology. The two largest manufacturing facilities of the company are located in Mexico and Brazil. ALSO READ: Viable to export out of India; clarity on global trade needed: Cisco
While the company does not disclose its investments by region or production capacity, it had announced in a 2015 statement plans to invest $10 billion in China over several years. In India, where it has operated for over three decades, the company announced a $1 billion investment in 2005. Cisco has a large R&D centre in India. However, the total amount it has invested in the country to date could not be ascertained.
On the tariffs front, Robbins said companies are adopting a wait-and-watch approach and have been in touch with the White House for some certainty.
He added that only after there is clarity, supply chain strategies will be decided.
“No chief executive wishes to be in a place where a $20-30 million dollar investment goes awry due to the tariff issue,” Robbins said.
“One of the biggest issues that CEOs have today is we just don't know where it's all going to land,” he added.
When asked about the progress on the $1 billion export and domestic revenue target from local manufacturing announced in 2023, Robbins did not specify a number on the progress.
Robbins, who is in India on a two-day visit, also acknowledged that there exists a deep divide between Chinese and American offerings in the global tech play.
Robbins, who had met Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and senior bureaucrats in New Delhi on Tuesday, said the company has been in India for the last 30 years. It hoped to help drive the “trust” element among all stakeholders.
India is an important source of research and development activities for the company, Robbins said.
He stressed that there has been a shift in the way India has evolved from being a favourite due to the cost advantage to being a hub of great engineering talent.
On affirmative policies like encouraging ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’, Robbins said diversity gives the best of ideas to solve complex problems or tasks. Hence, it is advantageous for a business to encourage such initiatives.