Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, today announced plans to initiate manufacturing of its diverse product portfolio in the fast-growing networking domain in India. The move, which aims to support the Make in India and Digital India initiatives, will also strengthen the Company’s existing R&D capabilities. Aruba is amongst the fastest growing providers of wired and wireless networking solutions in the country.
Over the last five years, Aruba has invested close to $300 million USD in India towards product development at its facilities in Bengaluru and Chennai. Going forward, the company plans to increase investment in technology manufacturing capabilities. The products manufactured in India, will initially be targeted for the local market, but will eventually be exported to other countries, thereby making India an export hub for the company.
“The fast-growing Indian economy and highly skilled talent pool are critical to the growth of Aruba worldwide. We are committed to fostering the development of the country and its people, through expanding manufacturing in the region. It is a matter of great pride for me personally to lead Aruba and to play a foundational role in its success. Data and connectivity are catalysts for growth in India, and Aruba is excited to play an important role in the growth story.We are already investing about $60M USD annully in R&D and this will grow,” said Keerti Melkote, Co-founder and President of Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company.
“We are fortunate to have such a rich ecosystem of product development, software development and innovation in India,” said Santanu Ghose, Director – India, Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company. “JAM – jan-dhan, Aadhar, and mobile-connectivity have been hailed as the building blocks for economic growth as we march towards being a $3 trillion economy by 2020. Ubiquitous data connectivity will play a big role in this growth story, and Aruba, with its strong intellectual property and mobile-first philosophy, is ideally poised to facilitate this growth. The manufacturing capability in India will give us added advantages to rapidly innovate networking solutions that will also deliver benefits and new experiences for other parts of the world as well.”
Professor Vivek Singh, BHU, Varanasi said “Wi-Fi network infrastructure is now a key enabler of technological empowerment for Indian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). I am quite hopeful that Aruba’s plan to start network hardware manufacturing in India will be a significant step towards localization, improving cost structures and enhancing the overall user experience. This will help ensure the rapid development and acceleration of the digital transformation process of Indian HEIs”.
The Make in India and Digital India initiatives aim to blend the digital and physical worlds by uniting people, services, and devices. This requires seamless last mile connectivity, which can be enabled by a robust, reliable Wi-Fi infrastructure. This infrastructure can also enable the delivery of vocational/professional training to citizens, thereby driving employability and entrepreneurship. Moreover, the Wi-Fi infrastructure can offer services beyond connectivity, including Location Services, Emergency Response Systems, and Crowd Management.
India is set to be one of the largest consumers of Wi-Fi outdoor solutions in the foreseeable future. By manufacturing wireless products in India, Aruba will be able to design and customize these for the unique market requirements and also offer troubleshooting services with ease.