Dell, Infosys and India - Dell is Manufacturing in Tamil Nadu

On Thursday, the Texas-based firm that changed the American business landscape with its direct sales model, announced the setting up of its first Indian manufacturing hub outside Chennai at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu.

A few months after Infosys' Narayana Murthy gathered Rs 10,000 to start his company in the early 1980s, a young American at the University of Texas was putting together $1000 to found a start up called PCs Limited to build computers from stock off-the-shelf components.

In the quarter century since, while Infosys has grown to a $2.2 billion company, PCs Limited, later eponymously renamed Dell Inc after its young founder Michael Dell, Dell has grown to a $55 billion behemoth, becoming America's 28th largest and 8th most admired company.

Why India? Because it is seen as one of the largest and most promising markets in the world. In its most recent operating quarter, Dell's shipments in India increased 82% while its revenue grew 63%.

Outside the US, Dell has manufacturing units in China, Malaysia and Ireland, but the company believes in locating production centres as close to its big markets.

Dell already operates a tech-support call centre in India. But manufacturing is a different deal altogether, given the company's supply chain reputation which has made the company a study case in business schools.

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