Finally, February saw the appointment of Vijay Gupta as president and chief executive officer of the India operations. In an exclusive interview with The Financial Express, Gupta outlines Lucent's India strategy. Apart from stepping up software development activity in the country, the company plans to aggresively tap the newly emerging business opportunities in the ISP space, including offering project finance and taking equity position in greenfield projects. Excerpts from the interview:

Lucent in India has been going through a consolidation phase of its business activities. Are we going to see a change in thrust in Lucent's India operations?
The government - through the Department of Telecom and MTNL - has been our major customer in the country. And will continue to remain so in coming years. Government purchases have been growing over the years. However, with the new telecom policy coming into place, business from the private sector has been showing a steady increase. We expect the total market for telecom equipment (including cellular and fixed line) to grow two to three times faster than what we have seen so far.

As the market in the private sector grows, we hope to gain a major share of the market. So one conscious thrust will be to focus on private sector business. We expect around 40 to 50 per cent growth in revenue in the current fiscal (October 1999-September 2000) over the previous year.

Is there any particular thrust area for the company in the current year?
Lucent is largely known in India as a communication systems supplier. However we have major business interests in development of telecom software, offering knowledge- based services and microelectronics. Though providing telecom equipment will continue to remain our bread and butter activity in the country, starting from this year we will focus majorly on expansion of our telecom software development activities and knowledge-based professional services. We plan to expand our R&D facilities relating to telecom software.

We will have one more software development centre over the next six to eight month time frame. Manpower devoted to software development is also slated to go up to 1,000 by the year-end from the present level of 600.

We are also going to focus in a major way on knowledge-based professional services. These will be directed more at greenfield projects for helping the operators to achieve their business goals more effectively.

Is their any particular industry segment for Lucent to target in the coming months?
ISPs will be a new thrust area for Lucent. We see a major business opportunity emerging in offering equipment and services to ISPs. We have already formed a group within the company to tap this segment. Talks are currently on with several national level ISPs for providing full end-to-end solutions. We are open to the idea of offering project finance or taking up equity position in greenfield projects. However these will considered on a case-by-case basis.

Are there any plans to step up investment in the country?
We are here to stay in India. We will continue to invest in India as the business volume increases. However investments immediately will mostly be in the form of stepping up manpower resources.