Cisco Reaffirms India as a Strategic Growth Market, Plans Continued Investment: President Jeetu Patel

Technology major Cisco views India as a highly strategic market and plans to continue expanding its investments in the country, senior executive Jeetu Patel has said. Founded in 1984, Cisco has evolved into a global leader in networking and cybersecurity, with India emerging over the past decade as a key hub for its engineering, research and development, and global services operations. The country has also become central to Cisco’s long-term supply chain and digital infrastructure strategy.

Speaking to PTI on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here, the company’s President and Chief Product Officer said India hosts the largest concentration of Cisco employees outside the United States.

"Looking ahead, India is an extremely strategic region for us and we have seen tremendous growth there," Patel said.

Cisco has gradually expanded its presence in India through investments in innovation centres, cloud infrastructure capabilities and workforce skilling programmes, in line with the government’s broader digital transformation agenda. "We are also ensuring that in some cases we are moving manufacturing to India," he said, citing the company’s Chennai facility that was inaugurated around a year ago.

"So, I believe India is a very strategic part of the world for us and we intend to keep investing in the country," he added.

Patel said India has developed a strong culture of public-private partnerships and noted that Cisco has benefited from working closely with the government and administration.

"Our objective is to continue delivering the best technologies that America builds, so that India has the strongest possible capabilities for generating AI tokens," he said.

Cisco works across a wide range of industries in India and aims to further deepen these engagements, Patel said. Over the years, the company has partnered with enterprises, telecom operators and public sector organisations as India accelerates adoption of cloud computing, cybersecurity solutions and AI-driven systems.

"It remains one of our most strategic regions as we move forward," Patel said, adding that he travels to India frequently.