Author: Daisy Chittilapilly, President, Cisco India & SAARC
As the third-largest digital economy in the world, India is making significant strides in its digitization journey, propelled by technology, automation, and intelligence. India has everything it needs to be a global destination for businesses seeking expansion opportunities – a stable economy, business reforms designed by the Government to drive foreign investment, digital competitiveness, diverse talent, and a massive consumer market.
At Cisco, we always recognized the potential and remain committed to deepening our presence in India. With our 30-year legacy in the country, we continue to help shape its digital future, foster innovation, and engender new possibilities for businesses and communities alike.
Why investing in India matters
India’s rise as an economic and technological leader is underpinned by several key factors that make it a strategic market for Cisco:
A thriving economy with unparalleled growth potential
India is expected to be the third-largest economy by 2027, promising long-term sustainable GDP growth. The GDP has doubled over the last ten years and is likely to expand by 6.5% in 2025, as per the IMF.
The country’s burgeoning appetite for technology and digital resilience is changing the way businesses, irrespective of size and industry, buy and consume technology. Gartner projects India’s IT spend to grow at 11% CAGR till 2027.
The Government of India is leading the charge.
The Government of India recognizes that adoption of digital technology and skills in new domains like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, IoT, etc. are critical to enhancing national competitiveness. At the same time, it is cognizant that new policies and regulatory frameworks would be necessary to bolster this transformation.
A series of investments have been instated, fortifying the country’s digital backbone, and ensuring accessibility and security in delivering foundational services such as the Aadhaar Card – the largest rollout of citizen identity worldwide.
Additionally, the creation of a nationally sanctioned Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) using Aadhar authentication provides an open platform that encourages joint innovation between the public and private sectors and enables access and democratization of citizen services.
These initiatives demonstrate the government’s continued focus and commitment to embracing digitization to unlock economic value, keeping India at the forefront of the global economy.
A digital-first nation
Cisco’s partnerships with India’s service providers has been instrumental in bringing more and more people online – as many as 971 million people are now connected to the internet. India is fast becoming the data capital of the world, with the average Indian consuming 24.1 GB of mobile data every month.
This hyperconnectivity has triggered a massive shift to digital banking – the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has become the preferred way of payment, accounting for 83% of the total payment volume at the end of 2024.
Technology is similarly becoming pervasive across industries in India. For instance, in the manufacturing and related sectors, investments in Industry 4.0 have been ramped up exponentially in the last few years. Small and medium enterprises are also embracing digital to catalyze profitability and enhance efficiency. A report by Oxford Economics found that approximately 26% of Indian SMBs have already implemented AI across various business functions, compared to a global average of 20%. In fact, IDC believes that by 2027, 50% of SMBs will significantly alter their IT budgets to factor in AI.
In sectors like healthcare, education, etc., providers are also viewing digital technology as a means to improve access to these crucial services. BCG projects the country’s digital healthcare segment to grow 10x by 2030. Educators are leveraging technologies like AI to improve learning experiences and personalize education. A TeamLease survey of 6,000 educators nationwide found that over 64% promoted using AI for this purpose.
At the same time, the country is steering advancements in cybersecurity and AI adoption, creating a resilient and future-ready digital ecosystem. IDC projects that AI spending in India will grow at 2.2x the rate of overall digital technology spending in the next three years. Globally, Cisco’s world-leading threat intelligence engine, Talos, detects 800 billion security events each day. The cybersecurity landscape is evolving faster than organizations can solve for, with the Data Security Council of India reporting over 390 million distinct malware detections in 2024. There is also a shortage of millions of skilled professionals in cybersecurity. Consequently, India is doubling down on investments in this space, with the expenditure budget seeing an 18% increase from the previous allocation towards cybersecurity.
Cisco is going BIG on India!
As Cisco celebrates 30 years in India, the company is poised to embark on a transformative journey with its India Go Big initiative. This strategic move not only underscores Cisco’s commitment to India but also highlights the country’s pivotal role in the global tech landscape.
Cisco is investing across sales and marketing, engineering, and manufacturing to partner India’s growth story, whether through enabling secure and scalable infrastructure, developing AI and security solutions, or equipping businesses with digital resilience.
Customer First: India has been a cornerstone of Cisco’s global strategy, both as a fast-growing market and as a key talent hub for engineering and customer experience (CX).
Cisco is making a slew of investments to fortify our presence in India. We are expanding our go-to-market teams and building state-of-the-art cloud infrastructure to bring best-in-class digital capabilities closer to our customers.
For example, LTIMindtree’s rapid deployment of Cisco Secure Access is a great testament to Cisco’s platform strategy and differentiation. The deployment is redefining the modern workplace, protecting 80,000 hybrid workers with secure internet access, advanced zero trust network access, and embedded AI.
Cisco has also collaborated with many of India’s airports, some of the world’s largest and busiest, like the Bengaluru International Airport, to digitize operations. By harnessing Cisco’s IoT platform, BIAL automated several under-the-wing and over-the-wing activities, resulting in an increase in operational efficiency and passenger experience, enabling data-driven decision-making, leading to a decrease in aircraft turn-around-time (TAT), and achieving new ways of generating revenue.
We are currently working on the Telecom AI Platform, which will create a new central intelligence layer for telecom and digital services in partnership with Jio Platforms Limited (JPL), AMD, and Nokia.
Strengthening R&D: India is home to one of the largest Cisco workforces outside the US, with over 16,000 professionals. Our R&D and engineering footprint is the largest outside the US—including 8,000+ engineers who have contributed over 1,000 patents.
As India continues to establish itself as a technology leader, AI is playing a pivotal role, and Cisco is redefining how infrastructure and data connect and protect organizations in this era. We are well-positioned to help our customers succeed in their AI-powered journey.
Enhancing manufacturing capabilities: A significant milestone last year was the inauguration of Cisco’s manufacturing facility in Chennai. This marks a crucial step in boosting supply chain reliability, both locally and globally. Cisco is also contributing to India’s ambition of becoming a global manufacturing hub.
Purpose at the heart of everything we do: Cisco’s strongly believes that technology can power an inclusive and secure future for all. This purpose remains at the core of who we are and is critical to our success, and encompasses all our stakeholders – customers, partners, employees, and communities.
In India, Cisco had set a vision to impact 50 million lives by 2025—a goal we have already achieved. Cisco’s Networking Academy has trained over 2.2 million students to date across the nation. Since inception, 95% of students who completed Cisco certification-eligible courses have obtained a career and/or educational opportunity.
Our Country Digital Acceleration program, one of the longest-running programs for Cisco globally, has completed over 120 investments in key sectors like agriculture, healthcare, and logistics, solving real-world problems at scale and speed.
“India Go Big” represents a bold vision for Cisco, aligning with India’s growth trajectory and digital ambitions. We are accelerating our pace of innovation and investment. Our goal is to deploy our technology to positively impact more people and businesses.
Cisco is all in to go big – with and for India!
