The Hindu Business Line : IBM chief meets PM

MR SAMUEL J. PALMISANO, the Chairman and CEO of IBM, on Thursday called on the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to discuss the company's expanding operations here and share IBM's vision to participate in the growth of India — which has emerged as an integral part of Big Blue's global delivery centre network.

Mr Palmisano, who is on the last leg of his four-day India visit, is learnt to have discussed IBM's growth trajectory over the last few years and its future roadmap, during the half-an-hour meeting with the Prime Minister. The details of the meeting were not available.

The itinerary of the IBM chief also included a series of meetings with key clients, and an interaction — via a 20-minute videoconference — with the Communications and IT Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, who is currently in Chennai. The talks with Mr Maran ranged from IT infrastructure to open source standards.

"The IBM Chairman assured his support for the Ministry's initiatives in areas such as e-governance and open source standards. Officials of the IT Department and IBM will work together to set the modalities on these open source support systems," Government sources said.

Mr Palmisano's India visit is in line with IBM's continued focus on emerging growth countries such as India, China, Russia and Brazil as a way to drive revenue growth and market share gain and as an important talent base for its growing service delivery business and research and development initiatives, sources said.

The company's revenues from China, India, Brazil and Russia in 2004 grew more than 25 per cent to over $4 billion.

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IBM chief meets PM