Cisco to set up hardware manufacturing in India to play its part 5G rollout, benefit from Atmanirbhar Bharat

From routers to cloud solutions, Cisco has been providing solutions for connectivity to clients across the globe, and its larges footprint in engineering outside US is in the Indian market. Now that the country is rolling out 5G solutions, the firm which provides IP core, automation, security and access among other services, seeks to make its mark. With its second-largest research and development facility in India, the American tech firm is set to establish a hardware manufacturing unit in the country.

Eyeing India’s production linked incentives

Cisco is known for making switches, access points, controllers and routers, as well as other equipment which can help businesses make the most of high-speed 5G connections. The announcement comes at a time when the Indian government has announced incentives for firms manufacturing products in India. This includes a 4 to 6 per cent incentive on incremental sales of products which have been made in India, to promote Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Cisco will bring an original design manufacturer (ODM) on board as a partner for the manufacturing facility, which has been announced six years after it started making goods in India in Pune. Cisco has already invested more than $30 billion in developing chips as well as software to manage 5G networks, and is set to invest another $5 billion for 5G projects in different countries including India.

Betting big on 5G rollout

With its latest push, Cisco is eyeing partnerships with telcos, to build transport, security and core solutions for 5G services. The company has previously failed to manufacture telecom products in Pune, because it lost an ecosystem and had to shut down. With its latest move, Cisco will be joining the wave of tech firms turning to India for manufacturing operations, including Apple’s suppliers, Xiaomi and Foxconn, which is setting up a semiconductor factory in Gujarat.

Apart from incentives for other local manufacturers, the Indian government is also supporting semiconductor and display makers by financing 50 per cent of the cost to set up a factory.