Mumbai: Worldwide head in Internet networking, Cisco Systems Inc plans to double up its Indian headcount by 2010.

As at the end of Q2 FY 07, Cisco India had around 2,800 workers including R&D sales and business support staff.

Ranajoy Punja Cisco India and SAARC Vice President (Business Development) stated, “We are a global company and Cisco is serious about India. The company has set up the Cisco Global Development Center in Bangalore, a software development center, which is the largest out of the US.”

Mr. Punja added that India was chosen as the spot for the Cisco Globalization center, established at an investment of $50 million. The company plans to spend $1billion, out of which $750 million would be used for setting up a research and development (R&D) facility at Bangalore.

India is part of the A-PAC theatre, which brings up about 11 per cent of the company’s worldwide earnings.

Since 1995, the Indian network of Cisco Systems India Pvt Ltd has developed to 7 sales and marketing offices stretch across all over the country including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Hyderabad.

Cisco India has combined development centers with IT majors like HCL Technologies at Chennai and Satyam Computer Services at Hyderabad, Wipro Technologies and Infosys Technologies at Bangalore and Zensar Technologies at Pune.