Cognizant to set up second unit in Kolkata

Cognizant will set up its second IT and business process outsourcing services infrastructure in Kolkata with an investment of close to Rs 188 crore by end of 2008 on land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishing.

This is expected to significantly increase Cognizant's footprint in Kolkata with the addition of over 500,000 sq ft of office space that could accommodate approximately 4000 new employees.

The new fully-owned techno-complex would come up on 20 acres in Bantala, a Special Economic Zone.

Cognizant would also continue to lease additional facilities in Kolkata as required to meet its headcount growth requirements.

Said R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director, Cognizant. "Our strategy to make ahead-of-the-curve investments in our people and infrastructure has established Cognizant among the top companies in the offshore outsourcing industry. As we plan for the next phase of Cognizant's growth, we are focused on building the scale to address the needs of our businesses around the world. Building larger Cognizant-owned facilities in India is a key part of our strategy. We expect our new construction programme will enable us to meet growing customer demand in North America, Europe, South America and Asia and continue to attract the industry's most talented and best people."

"Cognizant has scaled up to approximately 4,000 professionals in Kolkata and is committed to grow this centre tapping into the rich talent pool in the Eastern part of India. The Kolkata development center's focus on high growth industry segments-Financial Services, Pharmaceuticals, Retail, ERP and CRM-and the discipline of high quality execution excellence have enabled us to build stronger customer businesses," added Siddhartha Mukerjee, vice-president and head of Kolkata operations, Cognizant.

This $46 million investment in Kolkata is a part of Cognizant's larger program to spend about $200 million through the end of 2008 to build new fully-owned techno-complexes across Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Kolkata over three million square feet and capacity for over 30,000 new employees.

Cognizant, at present, has over 44,000 employees who are committed to partnerships that sustain long-term, proven value for customers by delivering high-quality, cost-effective solutions through its development centers in India and on-site client teams.