Intel changes guard in India, not strategy

Intel India on Monday said that it would continue its aggresive growth in this geography which was among the top three emerging markets for Intel globally.

Taking over as president of Intel India from Ketan Sampat, Franklin Jones said that Intel had grown from zero to 2,700 strong in ten years. Under his tenure the Indian operations would continue to expand aggresively in sheer number of people as well as scope of work.

Jones comes to India after a 15-year stint with Intel globally and is currently VP-finance and enterprise services and director of supply network capability for Intel. He is to take over the Indian operatios from November 2005.

"The Intel India site has a good visibility in the overall scheme of the Intel roadmap and there will be much more prominence given to this centre," Jones said. He added that he would focus on people and leadership management and further

Intel's association with e-governance and evangelising projects.

Sampat, speaking on his tenure of three years as president of Indian operations, said that there was one more project on which Intel India was working, without naming it, on an end-to-end basis. This was in addition to the Centrino mobile platform which was already shipping.

Sampat added that Intel was holding onto its dominant market share and intended to maintain this growth, currently at around 30-40 per cent, by trying to open up newer markets.

Commenting on Intel's emerging markets strategy, he said : "The potential is pretty high in these markets but the realisation of this will be felt only at a later stage."

On a question on whether Intel India is facing difficulties in recruiting talent, Sampat said that "it is indeed a tough market but we are able to meet the needs."