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Cisco plans network schools in India

Cisco Systems Inc said on Monday it will establish training academies in India to produce about 100,000 Internet network executives in a move to combat an expected shortage of such professionals by 2005.

Kicking off a two-day visit to India at the start of an Asian tour, Cisco chief executive John Chambers told reporters that it will establish 34 regional networking academies and use India as a key software base.

With the Internet medium growing at a frenetic pace, the demand for professionals to run network systems is expanding rapidly.

According to Indian Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan, the world is likely to face a shortage of two million network executives by 2005.

Chambers said a training drive in the United States had raised 100,000 professionals over five years. "I think this is a very reasonable number for India (as well)," he said.

In addition to investing about $8.6 million to help set up these academies, Cisco would spend about two million dollars to set up a centre to develop related technology skills.

Cisco's routers lead the market in smart machines that drive the core of traffic management in the global web of computers that make up the Internet.

The Cisco Networking Academy programme has about 5,900 academies worldwide now, with about 150,000 students enrolled in learning how to design, build and maintain computer networks.

Chambers said he discussed with Mahajan the significance of how spending on information technology infrastructure will power overall economic growth in the coming years and the importance of government-business partnerships to drive the field.

Cisco already has two software development centres in India, in addition to about 1,500 dedicated engineers working for Cisco in three Indian companies.

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