Cognizant expands its Kochi operations

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: Cognizant, a NASDAQ-listed, US-headquartered provider of information technology, is expanding its operations in Kerala by leasing 15 acres of land at the Kochi Infopark campus.

The company on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Kerala government for this.

When fully completed, Cognizant's new campus in Infopark Phase II will have a built-up area of 1.6 million sq ft and the capacity to accommodate around 12,000 professionals.

Cognizant will develop the campus in phases.

The first phase is being built at a cost of approximately Rs.250 crore and will consist of a 550,000 sq ft software development block, which will accommodate over 4,000 professionals.

Cognizant at present has over 1,500 professionals working from the first phase of Kochi Infopark.

Present at the signing ceremony was Kerala Industries Minister P. K. Kunhalikutty, who said that it was recently that the government has released the 'Emerging Kerala' tag line because it is emerging slowly and strongly as the land of opportunities.

"Big IT names like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Oracle, HCL, Cognizant and Cap Gemini are setting up offices in the state. Today, we are at the threshold of the next phase of IT growth in Kerala and the government assures all support to all companies who will play a key role in the development of the state as a leading IT hub of the country," said Kunhalikutty.

"We are committed to expanding our operations in Kochi and tapping into the world-class talent in the state of Kerala. This investment in a new campus in Kochi is a part of Cognizant's commitment to grow its operations in this region, and work closely with academia to further enhance the knowledge quotient," said R. Chandrasekaran, president and managing director, Global Delivery, Cognizant.