Cisco To 'Make In India', To Set Up Networking Equipments Manufacturing Facility In Next 12 Months At Chennai

Global technology giant Cisco will set up a manufacturing plant to make networking equipments in Chennai, Tamil Nadu as part of the efforts to diversify its global supply chain by setting a target of $1 billion in combined domestic production and exports in the coming years.

In an interview to Business Standard, Daisy Chittilapilly, president, Cisco India and SAARC, said that the manufacturing facility will focus on networking equipment, including routing and switching portfolio.

 "The government is announcing a lot of incentives like PLI (production-linked incentive), which are obviously attractive, and most importantly, the ecosystem in India is maturing. There is also a strong demand domestically for technology. In addition, we have always been a very strong talent hub and there has been no dearth of engineering talent." Daisy added.

On May 10, Cisco first unveiled its plan to start manufacturing in India.

The company's chief executive officer Chuck Robbins had then said that they would aim for $1 billion worth of domestic production and exports over the next few years from the new manufacturing unit in Tamil Nadu.

According to reports, Cisco is likely to have Flex India as its manufacturing partner in the country. CIsco typically manufactures through subcontractors.

Flex India's manufacturing unit is located in the Oragadam special economic zone (SEZ) in Chennai. The unit, which is likely to start rolling out products over the next 12 months, is likely to create roughly 1,200 jobs in the manufacturing ecosystem

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.