Movers & Shakers: Global Visitors - Look, Who's Knocking

For the Indian IT industry which enjoyed a stupendous 2006, it
was Christmas throughout the year. Several Santas walked past the immigration
counter at Delhi's IGI airport. Only, instead of Claus, their passports bore
surnames like Palmisano, Ballmer, Chambers, Kagermann, Tucci and Barrett amongst
others.

In the Arrival Lounge

Sam Palmisano: It was a cross between protocol and pomp when IBM held its
first-ever analyst meeting outside the US on June 6 at the Bangalore Palace
grounds. The occasion was CEO Samuel Palmisano's visit to India, his fourth in
the last three years. The presence of President Kalam and Sunil Mittal lent the
gathering decorum while the live rock, the dancers and Dia Mirza as emcee
provided the Bollywood touch. Palmisano asserted that India is now Big Blue's
most important market globally and it would employ 100,000 professionals here by
2010.

• Steve Ballmer: Microsoft
  CEO Steve Ballmer's maiden three-day tour itinerary included the India
  Development Center at Hyderabad as well as Delhi and Mumbai. He announced
  plans to have 7000 employees by 2009 and also teamed up with Hutchison Essar
  to offer mobile search ability via Windows Live. The visit highlight was,
  however, the Microsoft event on "Bridging the Two Indias" at the
  capital where he shared the address with President Kalam.

• John Chambers: The
  CEO of Cisco has been afrequent visitor to these parts and December saw him
  keeping tryst with India again at Delhi and Bangalore. The key engagement -
  was a keynote address on "Network as an Enabler for Life's
  Experiences" to senior Indian CEOs in a CII event Chamber's third
  visit in five years shows why Cisco is keen to develop India as an alternate
  operations HQ

• Henning Kagermann: His
  July visit made him the first SAP CEO to visit India in the 31 year history
  of the German software giant. He announced a partnership with IIM Bangalore
  to address the e-governance market in the country, and train students at the
  institute on ERP intricacies. Kagermann also intimated plans to double SAP's
  workforce here in three years, expand the SAP Labs and shift its own global
  BPO operations to India.

• Joe Tucci: The
  EMC CEO's maiden visit was literally high-flying as Tucci came calling on
  his private jet on a non-stop flight from Reykjavik where had flown from US.
  Not only Tucci announced doubled investment, he also elaborated on plans to
  set up a Centre of Excellence in e-Governance to assist the Central and
  State Governments with their e-gov information management and storage needs.
  Tucci's trip symbolized EMC's meteoric rise in India in last two years.

• Craig Barrett & Paul
  Otellini: The twin visits of the Chairman and the CEO reiterated
  that India continues to be more than a prominent blip on Intel's overall
  radar. Chairman Barrett's visit in November, his second in two years, was
  all about wooing rural India, as under its World Ahead program the Intel
  Chairman inaugurated a digital hospital and WiMax network at Baramati in
  rural Maharashtra . Earlier in May Intel , the primary agenda of CEO
  Otellini's visit was Intel Capital's 7th annual global CEO summit in
  Mumbai.

• Edward Zander: Zander's
  second visit in two years was a tacit admission of Motorola initially
  lagging behind competitors like Nokia, Eicsson and Alcatel-Lucent in India
  and its desire to now close the gap. On ground, he inaugurated Motorola's
  new R&D facility in Hyderabad, and announced an investment on the
  manufacturing facility in Chennai.

• Michael Dell: During
  a one-day whistle-stop trip to Bangalore in March, the Dell Chairman
  announced plans to start assemble Dell's products in India (venue now
  finalized at Sriperumbudur), with more extensive manufacturing facility
  later. He also intended to double Dell's headcount in India to 20,000 in
  -three years.

• John Thompson: The
  Symantec CEO inaugurated the Pune R&D facility during his maiden
  three-day trip in March that also included stopovers at Bangalore, Mumbai
  and Delhi. The Pune facility was actually an extension of Symantec's
  operation in India facilitated by its acquisition of Veritas. According
  toThompson, Symantec would double its engineering workforce and shift
  someengineering work to Chennai for its consumer business.

• Larry Page: The
  modern day tech poster boy was not on here on official capacity, neither was
  he 'Googl-ing' for business opportunities He landed in the temple town
  of Madurai in his private jet in January to visit the Arvind Eye Hospital.
  The mission was under the aegis of Google Foundation, the company's
  philanthropic arm, that has been quietly expanding its altruistic footprint
  in India.

• George Samenuk: The
  McAfee CEO, who had subsequently retired after a stock options imbroglio,
  visited India in March. The main agenda was to announce expansion of the
  McAfee India Development Center in Bangalore, the company's largest
  R&D facility the world over.

• Terry Semel & Jerry
  Yang: The now-deposed Yahoo Chairman & CEO came to India in
  May accompanied by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. Though they kept their cards
  about India-specific initiatives close to their chests , both admitted to
  India on way to the top three Internet markets globally.

• Jen-Hsun Huang: For
  the CEO, President and co-Founder of nVidia the April visit was all about
  ramping up R&D investments in a country that he felt represented
  "global innovation". He also closed the deal to acquire Pune-based
  Pace Soft Silicon, subsequently converted to another nVidia Design center.

  The year 2006 has indeed proved to be a landmark year for India and her global visitors

In Retrospect

Amidst all these high profile visits, there was one that never materialized.
Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, was scheduled to visit India in April, but
that trip got initially postponed to September ostentatiously because
recruitments for the Apple's R&D center were not complete. Even as 2006
draws to a close, India still waits for Jobs' 'Come September'. The fact
that Apple subsequently closed down its software development subsidiary in
Bangalore could have led to this no-show.

The year 2006 thus was a landmark for India hosting her global
visitors. Ancient and medieval India was enlightened and got spiritual
enrichment from the visits of global travelers like Fa Hien and Hiuen Tsang.
Modern India needs more enrichment of the material kind than spiritual, and
maybe the visits of the Palmisanos or Ballmers would show the way.

Rajneesh De

rajneeshd@cybermedia.co.in