Your investment of $1 billion announced for over three years, ran out in two. Can we expect a bigger investment this time?

Our commitment to India is strategic and long-term. We will continue to invest in this vital globalisation hub and improve our capabilities to tap the domestic opportunity.

Your chief globalisation officer, Wim Elfrink, has been talking about 20 per cent of Cisco’s top global talent being based in India in 3 years. Do you see a future Cisco CEO from India?

We will continue to focus on “skill incubation” and not just talent acquisition. Our goal is to base 20 per cent of our top talent in India in few years. Our vision is to utilise India as a platform to globalise and Cisco’s worldwide functions requires us to scale up and add talent at all levels in the organisation.

Has the Indian growth story influenced Cisco’s global strategy and products in any way?

We look at India not as an opportunity to save on labour costs, but as a true partner and platform for our globalisation efforts. The hallmark of Indian business, government and cultural leaders is the willingness of Indian leaders to partner closely. This partnering mentality, combined with the assets of India’s strong education system, commitment to mathematics and science, and supportive government, make us optimistic that India will continue to experience strong growth and success. Indeed, we expect many of the global firms of the next few decades to come from India.

Leveraging the technologies and the strengths of India as our partner, we are able to create a transformational new model for globalisation. Thus, India is critical to us, not only for its growing market, but also as the hub for overall globalisation efforts.

Web 2.0 drives Cisco’s strong growth. Do you expect a repeat of the 1990s Internet boom?

We believe we are entering into phase two of the Internet, which is being driven by collaborative technologies — Networked Web 2.0. Our expectation is that Networked Web 2.0 and collaboration will drive productivity for Cisco and for economies and businesses all over for the next decade.

However, we believe, we are in the beginning stages of this second phase. Collaborative technologies are just now beginning to move into and transform businesses. For example, using collaboration and Networked Web 2.0, Cisco has been able to reduce its carbon emissions by 10 per cent and increase acquisition time by more than five-fold.

How do you see overall spends in 2008?

We see the same economic and IT spending opportunities and challenges. Over the next decade, I am optimistic that Networked Web 2.0 and collaboration will drive a wave of IT and communication spending.