CISCO TO DEVELOP .6M SQ FT MORE SPACE IN BANGALORE

US-based clothing and accessories retailer GAP Inc plans to increase its sourcing requirements of textiles and clothing from India in the near future. The retail chain headquartered in San Francisco imports products worth a billion dollars annually from Indian manufacturers. In an open statement, Stan Raggio, Gap Inc's senior vice president of international outsourcing, said, "We will continue to source from India. We work closely with many stakeholders and receive valuable and important help from the local NGO community that assists our ongoing effort to ensure that our products are manufactured in a socially-responsible way. Our efforts in this important area will continue."

Multinational networking giant Cisco has cleared the deck for developing an additional .6 million sq ft office space with a provision of scaling it up to 2.2 million sq ft in Bangalore, making this the largest development plan by an IT major in recent times.

Cisco currently occupies 1.2 million sq ft at Cessna Business Park, an operating SEZ developed by Bangalore-based Prestige Group and has a staff strength of around 4,000. The .6 million sq.ft facility is targeted to be completed by the second quarter of 2012. Once that happens, Cisco will be occupying 1.8 million sq ft, making the India centre its largest outside of the US. In the long term, Cisco's India centre could even touch 3.2 million sq ft. Subash Rao, director-HR, Cisco India, says, "Cisco has designated Bangalore as our globalization centre East and indicated that we will have 10,000-12,000 employees based here over the next three to five years. The idea is for 20% of the top talent in Cisco to be based here."

A part of the additional space will be used to consolidate Cisco's offices in Bangalore into this state-of-the-art campus where all businesses and functions are located, he added.

Bangalore became a very important hub for $39.5-billion Cisco, outside of its headquarters in San Jose, California, when it set up its second globalization centre in January 2007 with its chief globalization officer Wim Elfrink being located in the city.

Besides being the largest R&D centre for Cisco outside of US, Bangalore is also serving as the hub for its new multi-billion dollar business initiatives. Cisco has already said that it would be driving new businesses, which has the potential to touch $1 billion in revenue within three years from Bangalore.

GAP TO EXPAND SOURCING OF TEXTILES FROM INDIA

WIPRO, BJ'S IN 5-YR DEAL

Wipro Technologies has signed a fiveyear deal with BJ's Wholesale Club Inc — the Massachusetts-based membership warehouse club — to provide IT data centre and application management services.

BJ's is in the business of providing its members value on brand-name groceries, consumer electronics, apparels, household items and seasonal products.

Under this agreement, Wipro will migrate BJ's mainframe and open systems environment to its data centre in Omaha, Nebraska. This will enable the warehouse club to streamline its infrastructure solutions, provide operational flexibility and improve applications support while more efficiently managing the long-term IT spend, Wipro said in a statement.

Wipro did not disclose the deal size. BJ's will benefit from Wipro's extensive expertise in providing applications management and support.

IBM UNVEILS IT EDUCATION TOURISM IN INDIA

IBM announced the launch of an education program that it said would enable IT professionals and students to come to India and receive IBM certified training here.

To avail of this offer, an individual needs to register for a course from the IBM Power and IBM System Storage Curriculum, the company said in a statement.

All visa formalities, tickets and accommodation requirements are arranged and facilitated by an IBM training partner, it said.

The IT education tourism program, slated to start next month, is a unique initiative where IBM has partnered with Stratom IT Solutions, India to introduce IT education tourism as a package for global students and IT professionals.

IBM plans to target around 300 participants in India for a minimum of 30 days this year.

As part of the program, IBM would offer a comprehensive portfolio of technical training and education services for systems designed for individuals, companies and public organizations to acquire, maintain, and optimize their IT skills, the statement added.

FUNSKOOL TO TAP INDIAN MARKET WITH MOVIE-BASED TOYS

Toy and game manufacturer Funskool is planning to introduce a range of moviebased toys to tap an estimated Rs 1,250- crore Indian toy market.

"Advancement in technology and demand for new variety in toys is propelling toy companies to think differently and innovate to introduce new kinds of toys...The toy makers have drawn the connecting link between movie mania and love for toys to introduce toys based on movies," Funskool India Ltd Vice President (Sales & Marketing) R Jeswant said.

He said the company's range include collections from Spiderman, Iron-Man, Hulk, Indiana Jones and Transformers, besides toys based on cartoon characters like Son Pari, Tom and Jerry and Dora the Explorer.

"Our next launch in this segment will be G I Joe. Besides this, we intend to keep introducing such toys based on the popularity of upcoming movies and demand for such toys," Jeswant said.

Funskool India, a joint venture between tyre major MRF and US-based international toy maker Hasbro Inc, retails its toy range through 4,000 retail points of sale, including large format chains like Shopper's Stop.

[ BY DARSHAN DAVE ]