4:45 PM -- Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) continues to up the ante in India, saying it will triple its workforce there to 10,000 by 2010, compared with 3,000 now.

It was just a year ago that Cisco talked about tripling the workforce -- but the numbers were smaller then. (See Cisco Hearts India.)

CEO John Chambers also reiterated his goal to put 20 percent of Cisco's top executives in India, although he said that happens by 2012. I'd gotten the impression the 20 percent goal was closer than that, but that was based a patented wandering talk by Chambers; he's sometimes imprecise with details. (See Cisco CEO Talks $10B Markets.)

India and China continue to be potential gold mines, and India doesn't have competition the size of Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763). It's no wonder Cisco is placing such big bets there.

— Craig Matsumoto, West Coast Editor, Light Reading