CISCO to help build 100 smart cities

Cisco is working closely with state governments and its partners to digitally transform 14 cities and plans to connect 100 cities as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India initiative, its CEO, Chuck Robbins, has emphasised. Robbins said: "We are engaged with state governments at various levels to digitally transform 14 cities with the help from our partners. I wish to take this number to 100 in the next five-seven years in line with the government's 'Digital India' and 'Make in India' initiatives." The global networking giant which is now focused on making a big foray into Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and cyber security, last month launched its manufacturing operations in Pune and announced it would build Nagpur as Smart City with its Next-Gen solutions. According to industry analysts, there are nearly 23 billion connected devices and the number is expected to double to over 50 billion by 2020 and Cisco is prepared to help governments and enterprises achieve this goal.