Dell is very happy about Modi’s Make in India, says it has great plans of its own for India

Founder of the over $60-billion Dell, Michael Dell, supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India initiative, elucidating plans to export more from Dell’s Chennai manufacturing unit.

While welcoming Modi’s pitch to turn India into a manufacturing hub, Dell, in an interview to Economic Times, said India will continue to be one of its most important markets globally.

After the US and China, India is the third largest market for Dell.

"We see tremendous opportunities to keep growing - India went from not being in the top 10 markets for Dell to now being No.3. India grew 30% last year for Dell, which is fantastic. We think that it can continue to grow at a healthy pace, so our investments will be in line with that," Dell said.

Meanwhile, Dell also denied re-entry into the smartphone business, which it had quit in 2012.

"Which company is making money in selling smartphones? How much money has Lenovo lost in the smartphone business? We have to consider those factors when making a decision. We see great opportunities in storage, data management and networking and all kinds of areas where we think we will get a better return on our investments than in smartphones," said Dell.

As many entrepreneurs are announcing their successors, Dell has no plans to retire soon.

"I think being 50 years old and being in good health, it's not a likely scenario anytime soon (retirement and succession)," said Dell.

"My job is to ensure that there is sufficient talent in the company if that happens. I believe we're in pretty good shape there. I'm 50 years old, which is no more than the average age of a Fortune 500 company. But I'm having a good time, the business is doing well, can't do it forever but it's working well and we don't have a problem. The thing I think about all the time is if I didn't have any affiliations or allegiance to what we had done before, given everything that's going on now, what would we be doing," said Dell.

Dell is a philanthropist also and through his Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, over $185 million has already been invested in India.

"I'm a big fan of philanthropy but I feel what we do as a company has far greater impact. One of the things our philanthropic efforts have figured out in India is that for-profit entities like EDUTEL are much more successful at providing positive outcomes than strictly not-for-profit entities going after the same problems,” Dell told the financial daily.

(Image: Reuters)