Cisco's Digitization Initiatives to Enable Smart Cities & Digital India Vision in Maharashtra

Cisco has announced the launch of its India manufacturing operations. At the event, Cisco and the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) also announced new local strategic initiatives to help the digital transformation of the state, which includes the citywide deployment of a smart city framework to roll out  Smart City solutions in the city of Nagpur, digital learning for students and skills development for local entrepreneurs in Dharavi to create an eCommerce hub, expansion of the Cisco Networking Academy® program, and digital education and healthcare initiatives in Fetri village.

The launch of the manufacturing operations took place in the presence of the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Shri Devendra Fadnavis; the CEO of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Shri Amitabh Kant; Smt. Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India; Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins; Irving Tan, Senior Vice President, Cisco Asia Pacific and Japan; Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India & SAARC; and Jun Kim, Vice President, Cisco Supply Chain Operations.

Cisco to manufacture diverse product portfolio to support the Make in India initiative

Cisco will manufacture and roll out a diverse product portfolio in India to support the government’s Make in India initiative. Cisco will use its India manufacturing operations to produce and ship orders for customers in India, as well as for testing, development, logistics, and in-house repair capabilities. 

Cisco also announced its ongoing commitment to accelerate Digital Maharashtra, including several initiatives to ensure that all of India’s citizens benefit from the power of connectivity. These initiatives include:

Nagpur: India’s First CityWide Deployment of a Smart City Framework enabled by Cisco City Digital Platform

Cisco will roll out Smart City Solutions in Nagpur to enable city-wide network connectivity, Smart & Secure Wi-Fi hotspots, and Smart safety & surveillance solutions. The various citizen services enabled by smart cities architecture, like smart transport, solid waste management, smart lighting, environmental sensors, and smart parking, will be integrated on Cisco’s City Digital Platform. The City Operations Centre will have a single view of all solutions to manage the city with increased operational efficiency and productivity, enabling them to provide quality infrastructure and services to citizens.

Dharavi eCommerce Hub: Bringing Digital Learning and Connectivity to Students and Skills Development for Local Entrepreneurs

At the ceremony Cisco showcased how it was helping digitize Sri Ganesh Vidya Mandir High School by providing the students with a virtual classroom, digital learning and highly secure Internet connectivity. Cisco’s initiative aims to enhance the quality of education through digital learning for academia to connect, collaborate, create and share content with students. After school hours, local entrepreneurs and start-ups will be able to use the school as a platform for local innovation and help make Dharavi an e-commerce hub.

 Expansion of Cisco Networking Academy Program to Support Skill India and Increase Maharashtra’s Pool of Highly Trained Professionals

As part of Cisco’s commitment to accelerating Digital Maharashtra and supporting the Maharashtra State Education Digitization agenda, the company announced plans to establish up to 25 Cisco Networking Academies to train approximately 10,000 students in Maharashtra by 2020. The Cisco Networking Academy program in India has one of the largest programs for Cisco worldwide. Across 186 academies, nationwide, more than 122,000 students have been trained since its inception. The skills-development program is a cloud-delivered, scalable, high-quality program that helps students learn how to design, build, secure and maintain computer networks and prepare for jobs in the digital economy.

Wi-Fi, Smart Education and Smart Healthcare to Digitize Fetri Village
Underlining its commitment to the digital transformation of Maharashtra, Cisco announced a new initiative to digitize Fetri village in the Kato Tehsil of Nagpur district in Maharashtra. With the intention to build a Digital Village, Cisco will deploy key technologies including Wi-Fi, smart healthcare, and smart education in an upper primary government school in Fetri. At the ceremony today Cisco demonstrated how its India manufactured products will play an integral role in Digital India by providing high performance wireless connectivity to get access to quality education. Cisco also demonstrated how patients can be connected with doctors conveniently and efficiently, regardless of distance, through highly secure immersive visual experiences.

Cisco to Collaborate on the Rollout of Broadband Infrastructure

As part of its commitment to help the state realize its vision of Digital Maharashtra, Cisco will collaborate on the state-wide rollout of broadband infrastructure to accelerate the Digital Maharashtra vision. A role model on digital transformation for other states, Maharashtra sees the building of digital infrastructure as the most crucial step toward achieving its vision of a Digital Maharashtra and enabling financial inclusion, e-governance and citizen services

Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, said, “Digital transformation has emerged as the most transformative means to ignite sustainable growth and improve society. Digitization creates economic competitiveness, enables ease of doing business, improves public services, increases GDP, creates employment, and enhances the quality of life of citizens. My vision for digital Maharashtra is to digitally empower every citizen, increase the state’s global competitiveness by creating a highly skilled workforce ready for the jobs of the future, build an environment that stimulates exceptional companies, and enable outstanding public services for citizens. We are happy to partner with Cisco in the Digital Maharashtra initiative and we believe Cisco’s global experience and expertise in digitization will benefit Maharashtra immensely and accelerate the digitization of the state.”

Amitabh Kant, CEO, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, said “Digitization is not just connectivity. Digitization is the catalyst for industrial growth which has the potential to transform economies. The manufacturing sector is imperative to national development and raising incomes, and India will become a digital disruptor if it embeds, converges and integrates manufacturing and digitization. The government recognizes that Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) can play a seminal role in enabling India’s journey towards becoming a global manufacturing destination. I congratulate Cisco on the inauguration of its manufacturing facility, and I believe this is yet another milestone in strengthening India’s position as a manufacturing hub and accelerating the economic prosperity of the country.”

Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, said, “The vision of the government’s Make in India initiative is to promote manufacturing in India both to enable a Digital India as well as to become an export hub. The government has identified electronics manufacturing as a strategic sector for the country and is committed to create the right regulatory reinforcements which will enable global supply chains to enter India and lead to supply chain acceleration. I congratulate Cisco on the inauguration of its manufacturing facility, and I believe it will encourage the global IT industry to view India as a potential go-to manufacturing destination of the world.” 

Chuck Robbins, CEO, Cisco, said, “Digitization opens up unprecedented opportunities for every country, state and city. High technology manufacturing is convergence of engineering and science. India offers a huge talent pool of highly qualified scientists, engineers and designers along with ease of doing business, geographic location, and proximity to suppliers and customers. Today’s announcement reaffirms Cisco’s long-term commitment to India, a strategic center of country digitization and innovation. We are honored to work with the people of India to accelerate their digital economy, and help further the government’s vision to create sustainable competitiveness and prosperity.”

Dinesh Malkani, President, Cisco India and SAARC, said, “Today's announcement underscores India's strategic importance to Cisco's global operations. We have made significant investments in India since we established operations in the country in 1995, and today’s announcement is another milestone in deepening our commitment to India. Today we lay the foundation for the next chapter in Cisco's development in India, and help strengthen India’s global leadership position in digital transformation.’’

Jun Kim, Vice President, Cisco Supply Chain and Manufacturing Operations said, “Cisco is committed to being the strategic partner to India during this massive digital transition.  The manufacturing of our diverse product portfolio will bring advance manufacturing capabilities to our operations in India.”