The investments include $40 million in early-stage and growth-stage companies and the training of 250,000 students in India by 2020.
“Today's announcements underscore India's strategic importance to Cisco's global operations particularly as an innovator in the next wave of the Internet's development,” said Dinesh Malkani, president of Cisco India and SAARC. “We believe Cisco with its full breadth of technology, and leadership in digitisation can impact the lives of 1.25 billion Indians in a meaningful way.”
The networking company will work with the government on strategic initiatives such as the addition of six innovation labs, three centres of expertise, funded university collaborations and skills investments.