Cognizant to add 9,000 people in India

CHENNAI: Cognizant has announced plans to further expand the company's India-based Techno-complex capacity in Chennai, Pune, Kolkata and Bangalore. The company also announced that it would construct a new training academy in Chennai.

According to a statement from the company, this plan supersedes the company's facility investment plan announced in December 2003. The new facilities will add approximately 830,000 square feet of space to house approximately 9,000 employees, as well as approximately 1,00,000 square feet of educational space for use by Cognizant's training academy.

Cognizant expects to spend approximately $76 million on the expansion construction program and land purchases, an increase of approximately $34 million compared to the expansion program announced in December 2003.

"Clients have been ramping up their offshore programs, including application development and maintenance projects, even more rapidly than the already high levels we had anticipated," said, Cognizant, President and CEO, Lakshmi Narayanan. "The increasing number of large organizations deciding to initiate outsourcing is resulting in higher demand for our industry leading services. Our sustained high growth rate in revenue and headcount has not only provided the opportunity for us to begin the second phase of building our additional facilities, but for us to now expand those already substantial plans."