Cognizant to kick off operations in Kolkata

IT biggie Cognizant will kick off operations at its second IT services unit in Kolkata before September. This was indicated by a senior West Bengal IT department official.

Cognizant founder and vice chairman N Lakshmi Narayanan met West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers' Buildings to discuss the progress of the company’s second IT unit in the city.

Talking to newsmen after the meeting, the Cognizant VP said, "Work at the Bantala unit is progressing according to plan."

Cognizant is setting up its second IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) services unit in Kolkata with an investment of close to Rs 188 crore. This is expected to sharply raise Cognizant's footprint in Kolkata with the addition of over 5 lakh sq ft of office space that may accommodate nearly 4,000 new employees.

The new fully-owned techno-complex will come up on 20 acres in the Bantala IT SEZ. In this light, the state government official said, "Cognizant’s second unit will be operational before the Pujas. It will have a capacity to accommodate some 4,000-to-6,000 people. This will be enhanced to 16,000 subsequently."

At present, out of its 44,000 global workforce, around 33,000 are at the India development centres spread across eight cities, including Chennai and Bangalore.
In addition to this facility, Cognizant will continue to lease additional facilities in Kolkata to meet its headcount growth requirements, according to a company press release.

Cognizant has around 4,000 professionals in Kolkata focussing on segments such as financial services, pharmaceuticals, retail, enterprise resource planning and customer relations.