Cisco CEO to visit India in January

BANGALORE: US Internet equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc's chief executive

officer John Chambers will visit India in January at the start of a tour of

Asia, the company said on Monday.

"India will be the first stop in his Asia tour in the new year,"

Cisco Systems (India) Pvt. Ltd. said in a statement.

It said he would visit India from January 15 to 17 and would meet top

government and business leaders.

India was the company's second fastest growing market in the world, said

Manoj Chugh, president of Cisco's Indian and SAARC operations.

Cisco has offices in major Indian metros and runs a global development center

in Bangalore, which is home to dozens of global and Indian technology companies.

The firm employs over 500 people at its Bangalore center.

Cisco in August said it would invest $150 million to expand its Indian

technology development center over the next two years.

The center will be Cisco's second largest research and development facility

globally and the largest outside the United States. Cisco has already invested

$75 million in India since January 1996, company officials said.

(C) Reuters Limited 2000.