Mumbai: Global tech major Cisco believes that India is a "viable" hub for exports, but made it clear that it will wait for clarity on global trade policies before deciding to invest more here.

The San Jose-headquartered company's chairman and chief executive Chuck Robbins said India is one of the biggest opportunities for Cisco globally, and it believes no other country in the world can deliver the growth rates that India can over the next decade.

Stating that the company started manufacturing in India about 18 months ago with a single product and is in the process of adding two more, Robbins said India is now a "viable" place for exporting out of.

"I think the global trade dynamics right now need to sort of get settled down so we actually can think through how it impacts our longer-term plans. But obviously India is a big part of it," he told reporters here, when asked about investment plans.

It can be noted that Cisco has a manufacturing unit near Chennai, which was opened last year.

Robbins said there is a lack of clarity among companies amid shifts in geopolitics and wars, rising nationalism, sovereignty requirements and tariffs.

On the tariffs front, Robbins said companies are adopting a wait-and-watch approach and have been in touch with the White House for some certainty, and added that it is only when clarity emerges that supply chain strategies will get fixed up.

No chief executive wishes to be in a place where a $20-30 million investment goes awry due to the tariff issue, Robbins said.

"...one of the biggest issues that CEOs have today is we just don't know where it's all going to land," he said, adding that it is difficult to adopt a supply chain strategy in the absence of it.

When asked about the progress on the $1 billion export and domestic revenue target from the local manufacturing announced in 2023, Robbins did not specify a number on the progress.

"(India is) one of the biggest opportunities in the world for us. If you look out over the next five to ten years, I'm not sure there's another place on the planet where you would expect the growth that we should see here," the CEO said on the second day of his two-day India visit.

He acknowledged that there exists a deep divide between Chinese and American offerings in the global tech play.

Robbins, who had met Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and senior bureaucrats in New Delhi on Tuesday, said the company has been in India for the last 30 years and hoped it could help drive the "trust" element among all stakeholders.

India is an important source of research and development activities for the company, Robbins said, stressing that there has been a shift in the way India has evolved from being a favourite due to the cost advantage to being a hub of great engineering talent.

Amid some conversation over affirmative policies like encouraging 'diversity, equity and inclusion', Robbins said Cisco has been pressing with its strategy because it makes for a compelling business case.

Diversity gets the best of ideas to solve complex problems or tasks, and hence it is advantageous for a business to encourage such initiatives, he said.