The Hindu Business Line : IBM CEO Palmisano makes low profile visit

REVIEW VISIT: Mr Samuel J. Palmisano, Chairman, President & CEO of IBM Corporation, and Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, at the CII CEOs' forum on `Leadership, trust and the globally integrated enterprise,' in the Capital on Tuesday. Mr Palmisano, who was visiting the country for the sixth time, chose to maintain a low profile. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi May 8 Unlike the visits of Mr Steve Ballmer of Microsoft or Mr John Chambers of Cisco to India over the last few months, the IBM President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Samuel J Palmisano, chose to maintain a low profile during his visit here. Mr Palmisano who was visiting the country for the sixth time, was in the Capital for half-a-day.

The company spokesperson, Ms Amanda Garland, Director, External Communication, Asia Pacific, said, "Mr Palmisano was visiting India mainly to review the company's existing business operations in the country and meet some of the prospective clients." Declining to give any specific details of the kind of deals that the company was focusing on, she said, "IBM does deals across all sizes and his visit was not in the context of any particular deal." Ms Garland denied that the company was talking to Reliance for any outsourcing agreement.

According to senior officials in the Ministry, Mr Palmisano met the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran.