Cognizant will invest over $200 million in India through the end of 2008 to build new fully-owned techno campuses to seat over 30,000 new employess, R Chandrasekaran, president and managing director, Cognizant, tells TOI.

What are the emerging trends across all the verticals that the company works in?

There are three key trends that we are seeing which are drivers of our growth: Clients are looking for a broader range of services (including IT infrastructure services, BPO, data warehousing and business intelligence, ERP and CRM); industries beyond financial services such as pharmaceutical, telecommunication, media and entertainment are strategically embracing offshore; and Europe, specifically continental Europe, is opening up to offshoring at an accelerated pace. Financial services is the largest industry segment for Cognizant that represents 48 per cent of our overall revenue, followed by healthcare at 25 per cent, and manufacturing and retail together at 14 per cent. In Q4 2006, on a year-over-year basis, financial services grew 54 per cent, healthcare grew 99 per cent and manufacturing and retail grew 42 per cent clearly indicating a secular growth, although healthcare came in much stronger than we expected.

How much has the company invested in the country so far and how much is it expected to invest in the current year?

In Q4 2006, Cognizant announced plans to expand its infrastructure in India through an expansion of its existing real estate development programme. Through this programme, which includes the expenditure of over $200 million (approximately Rs 900 crore) through the end of 2008 on land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishing, Cognizant expects to build new fully owned techno-complexes in Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Coimbatore that will significantly increase Cognizant’s existing campus footprint in India with the addition of over three million square feet and capacity for over 30,000 new employees. For calendar 2007, Cognizant plans to add a net of 17,200 professionals globally to take our global headcount to at least 56,000 from 38,800 at the end of December 2006. Of this 17,200 net addition, over 85 percent of the hiring will happen in India. The India development centers are an integral part of Cognizant’s global development center model. The fact that 75 per cent of Cognizant’s headcount is in India among the highest in the toptier category clearly indicates its importance. Of our current global headcount of 40,000 professionals, over 30,000 are in India across Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Coimbatore. In Q4 2006, approximately 75 per cent of our effort came from India and the remaining 25 per cent from North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions.

What is the status of the new campus that is coming up in Hyderabad in the 40-acre land allotted by the AP government?

We just got our land allocation. Following this, Cognizant plans to invest over $200 million (approximately Rs 900 crore) through the end of 2008 on land acquisition, facilities construction and furnishing to build new fully owned techno-complexes in Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Coimbatore that will significantly increase Cognizant’s existing campus footprint in India with the addition of over three million square feet and capacity for over 30,000 new employees.

–ExclVentures