IBM CEO discusses software for ‘Smart Cities’, ‘Digital India Initiative’ with PM Modi

October 4, 2014

New York,  (ANI)

The CEO of IBM, Virginia Romnetty, discussed about software for India’s pet projects like ‘Smart Cities’ and ‘Digital India Initiative’ during her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Monday.

MEA official spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said Romnetty made this offer in response to Prime Minister Modi’s call for investments.

“CEO of @IBM Virginia Romnetty meets PM @narendramodi. Discusses software for “Smart Cities” and Digital India Initiative,” Akbaruddin said on twitter shortly after the meeting.

The Prime Minister earlier held meetings with a host of business leaders including Boeing CEO James McNerney; American private equity fund Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co CEO Henry Kravis; Laurence D. Fink, CEO of the American multinational investment management firm Blackrock; Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and General Electric Jeffrey CEO R. Immelt.

Prime Minister Modi has announced plans of developing 100 smart cities in India. With the government already allocating Rs 7,060 crore allocation in the Union Budget, the smart cities initiative has garnered the maximum attention from the IT sector as this project will rely heavily on technology because smart cities are technology-driven.

Another pet project of Prime Minister Modi, the ‘Digital India’ plan is the first tech-driven project which aims to promote digital inclusion with broadband connectivity down to the village level, thereby enabling improved access to services through IT-enabled platforms.

IBM India Private Limited is the Indian subsidiary of IBM. It has facilities in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon, Noida, Chandigarh, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Modi held a breakfast meeting with CEOs of 11 top US companies, during which he is believed to have pushed India’s case as the best investment destination in Asia.

Among the eleven CEOs whom the Prime Minister met were Google’s Larry Page, David M Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group, Citigroup CEO Michael L Corbat, Doug Oberhelman of Caterpillar, Cargill President and CEO David W MacLennan, PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, Kenneth C Frazier of Merck, MasterCard President and CEO Ajaypal Singh Banga, AES Corporation CEO Andres Gluski, Charles R. Kaye of Warburg Pincus and Micheal Ball of Hospira – a US-based global pharmaceutical company.

The Prime Minister departs for Washington later in the day where he is going to have a private dinner with U.S. President Barack Obama at White House tonight. (ANI)

 

Source-in.news.yahoo.com

IT majors queue up with smart city plans

September 22, 2014

The plans for smart cities and bank accounts for all adult Indians are opening up major investment opportunities for IT giants like IBM.

Vanitha Narayanan, managing director of IBM India and South Asia, told a select press meet that her company has already provided a blueprint for a smart city to the government. “We met Amitabh Kant, (secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion) when he was the CEO of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor project” she said.

IBM joins the growing league of global IT firms that plan to step up their investments in India to take advantage of the digital plans of the Narendra Modi-led government. Cisco has already signed an agreement to transform Bangalore Electronic City into a smart city in partnership with Electronics City Industries Association.

Similarly SmartCity Dubai plans to tie up with the Madhya Pradesh government for a similar project to be located between Bhopal and Indore. Narayanan said that with the new government in power, the investment environment of the economy has “changed”.

Commenting on the tax notices served by the revenue department on IBM, she said, “We are now talking to the government about it.” The company has been asked to pay a sum of Rs 5,357 crore as outstanding income tax for FY09 , which it has disputed.

IBM has big plans for India as it expands its global cloud footprint. While the number of its data centres in the country will jump to about 40 by the end of this year riding on its private cloud service, Narayanan said the investment in public cloud  solutions will especially help small and medium enterprises deliver solutions for their customers .

Source:The Indian Express