The Hindu Business Line : Cognizant Tech to invest $76 m more, hire 7,200

Mr Lakshmi Narayanan (left), President and CEO, Cognizant Technology Solutions, and Mr Kalyan Mohan, Vice-President, Advanced Solutions Group, Head of Bangalore Operations, Cognizant Technology Solutions India Pvt Ltd, at a press conference in Bangalore on Thursday. - - G. R. N. Somashekar

Bangalore , Feb. 24

Cognizant Technology Solutions plans to invest $76 million in setting up new development centres and expanding the existing ones across India during 2005 and 2006.

The company is investing close to Rs 130 crore in its new centre in Bangalore, and will also expand its centres in Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata, which will house over 9,000 people, said Mr Lakshmi Narayanan, President and CEO, Cognizant.

The company has also acquired about 10 acres at Electronics City, Bangalore, to meet its future expansion needs.

Cognizant, in a bid to augment its capabilities and offers, is looking at acquisitions in areas such as open source and high-end business process outsourcing, Mr Narayanan said.

It expects to add 7,200 people, 10 per cent of whom would be hired overseas. The company expects to finish the current calendar year with over 22,500 employees. About 60 per cent of the new hires would be from campuses while the remaining laterals, he said.

The US-headquartered Cognizant has nearly 70 per cent of its 15,300 employees operating from India.

While salaries for programmers in India are rising at double-digit rates, at its Europe and US centres, it is rising by less than 5 per cent, Mr Narayanan said.

Cognizant's revenues in 2004 stood at $586.7 million. It expects to increase its revenues to $845 million in 2005.

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