New Delhi : Dell Inc Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell said in a conversation with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the south Asian nation is poised to become a technology manufacturing centre.
The remarks came last week during a discussion with Singh about ways to boost hardware manufacturing in India, Dell spokesman David Frink said in an interview. The company denied an account of the discussion by Singh, who said Dell may be looking for a "safer environment" than China.
"With the right kind of progress, Mr. Dell said that he believes India also has an opportunity to become a hardware manufacturing hub, generating employment and adding to that country's impressive growth," Frink said.
India, Asia's third-largest economy, needs to spend $1 trillion (Dh3.67 trillion) on roads, ports, power and other infrastructure between 2012 and 2017 to help accelerate economic growth to 10 per cent and cut poverty, Singh said this week. Getting computer makers like Dell to invest in India rather than China is "an area where there are immense opportunities," Singh said in a March 23 speech to members of India's Planning Commission.
Singh and Dell met a day after Google Inc started routing China-based users to an unfiltered search service on its Hong Kong site.
Singh later said Dell was considering shifting purchasing of components from China to a "safer environment," according to the text of the Indian official's speech released by India's Press Information Bureau. Dell denied that account and the website for the Press Information Bureau, where releases of Singh's speeches are posted, no longer has a copy of the remarks.
