Mr Chambers was addressing a press conference on his last day of India visit. He said that the selection of potential startups for investment from Cisco will be identified by the Indian team of the company. However, he did not specify the volume of investment earmarked for start-up venture.

The Cisco chief also announced that upgradation of amount of investment in research and development and development of software solutions activities in India to $200 million against $150 million announced earlier.

The investment is targeted to expand the Cisco global development centre in Bangalore, which currently employs over 400 engineers. In addition, the investment would also be used to upgrade existing development centres with Indian infotech companies HCL, Infosys, Wipro in Bangalore and Chennai. The company projects that it will need to expand engineering workforce in the country by 300 per cent over the next three years to meet its growth projections.

Mr Chambers also said that India currently contributes just one third of one per cent to Cisco's global business and now plans to take it upto 10 per cent over the next five to seven years. "We want to expand our presence in India to take advantage of the research and development talent and to demonstrate our commitment to the government and the country," said Mr Chambers.