‘India’s inclusive future relies on its connectivity,’ says Cisco India chief

Edited excerpts:

We are just a couple of days away from the mega 5G rollout in India. Cisco, a global leader in the sector, seems to have a huge opportunity to tap into — could you talk a bit about the scope of it?

Overall, the telecom industry is expected to invest almost $20 billion in the development of advanced infrastructure for 5G by 2025, according to the GSMA. This commitment to building future-ready networks is a tremendous opportunity for us. We are working with telecom service providers across the nation to reinvent the 5G network and make it predictive, simplified, and trustworthy. We aim to ensure that 5G services will facilitate ubiquitous connectivity, resulting in a significant increase in throughput, lower latency, and improved spectrum utilization. 

Our 5G network architecture is designed to enable secure, intelligent, and connected services for the next generation of smart devices, applications, and ecosystems. 

Cisco has been working on several projects related to digitization in collaboration with the federal government and the states. What are the challenges being faced at grass root level?

The $5-trillion-by-2025 vision has been a catalyst for the transformation we’ve been witnessing over the last few years. However, it’s more heartening to see that now, the focus on including every single citizen in this transformation is mounting exponentially. And undoubtedly, connectivity is the foundation on which India’s inclusive future will be built, to bring the benefits of digitization to everyone. To make this happen, we are working with the government to further scale programs like BharatNet to deliver the internet to every corner of the country. 

At the same time, there is a rising need to transform our most critical sectors like agriculture, logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, etc. At Cisco, we’ve partnered with various state governments to help remove redundancies through technology. For instance, we are exploring the applications of AI and IOT systems with the Kerala Government to strengthen their aquaculture ecosystems. We’ve also piloted a project with the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, setting up an integrated command and control center for unified management of city infrastructure. Additionally, as the government focuses on digitizing logistics to become globally competitive through the new National Logistics Policy, we’re working with some of the country’s largest ports to help optimize their operations. 

Lastly, as hybrid work becomes a reality, we’re focusing on helping turn India into a premier talent hub. A study by Gartner showed that in 2020, Indian companies identified skill gaps as their greatest barrier, representing 34% of the challenges they experienced. In 2022, this has risen to 60%. To address these gaps, Cisco has partnered with AICTE and NASSCOM to offer 20,000 cybersecurity internships through MeitY and the FutureSkills platform. We’re also exploring other partnerships to accelerate these efforts. 

Cisco has been coming up with several intriguing digital solutions for the new world — the hybrid workplace product is one. Tell us what makes it unique.

Hybrid work is becoming a preferred choice for workers and employers across the globe. As this happens, companies need to invest time and resources to prepare themselves, their teams, and their offices. This includes identifying the right partners to help enable inclusive, productive, and secure collaboration at scale. At Cisco, we have been focusing on enhancing our collaboration platform, Webex, with several AI-powered features to facilitate seamless, intelligent communications amongst widely dispersed teams.

In addition, in a highly virtualized and dispersed workplace, privacy and security must be built in from the ground up. As identity becomes the new parameter, Cisco’s Secure Access by Duo and AnyConnect VPN provide secure and easy access authentication to verify the identity of all users before granting access to corporate apps. 

Lastly, as the enterprise becomes more distributed, their platforms and systems must be predictive, and intelligent, providing real-time visibility into distributed applications, security, networks, users, and services. Towards this, we have innovated solutions like ThousandEyes, which provides real-time monitoring of apps and networks; the Meraki dashboard, which monitors access, WAN, and IoT without switching context; SecureX, our cloud-native platform which integrates the Cisco Secure portfolio with the customer’s security infrastructure, speeding response and recovery; and more. 

We have all that businesses need to build modern application architectures and transition to a cloud-powered world of work.

There are several supply-chain bottlenecks due to shortage of chips around the world, how has been the experience for Cisco’s hardware business with the chip crunch?

The supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the pandemic have impacted everyone across the globe. We continue to see capacity issues and component shortages, but the situation is certainly becoming better. Cisco has initiated several efforts to address the present supply gaps with our focal point remaining to fulfil our customers’ needs. We are constantly engaging with our network of suppliers and manufacturers to find innovative solutions to minimize the effects of extended product lead times and recommitting dates and enhancing supply. 

25 years in the ever-changing IT industry and 18 years in Cisco. How has the journey been and what’s driving you to reach further?

Over the last 25 years in the IT industry (18 at Cisco), I’ve been privileged to have a front-row seat to the technology revolution that has taken place in India. I’ve also been a part of some incredible projects at Cisco targeted at modernizing sectors – agriculture, healthcare, transport and logistics, etc. I’ve seen just how far a simple technological intervention can go in empowering people and changing lives. And as digitization gains momentum, it will allow us to include all the communities that have thus far been left out of India’s transformation and economic vision. 

This is just the beginning. For a nation like India, the possibilities of technology are truly endless, and I’m excited to see the opportunities that it will bring for everyone.