Cognizant in $200m plan to expand

BANGALORE: IT services provider Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (CTS) will spend over $200 million in adding facilities in five cities by 2008. Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune are the cities where it will expand, besides leasing space in other cities.

The expansion would add around 3 million square feet for Cognizant in areas notified as special economic zones, allowing it to accommodate over 30,000 new employees.

"Cognizant has grown faster than competition over the last several years, and our strong pipeline reinforces our confidence in our future growth plans," Gordon Coburn, chief financial officer, Cognizant, said.  "Our strategy of making ahead-of-the-curve investments in our people and infrastructure has established Cognizant among the top-tier companies in the offshore outsourcing industry."

Cognizant aims to have a workforce of over 35,000 by December, of which nearly 23,000 people would be deployed in India.

"As we plan for the next phase of Cognizant's growth, we are focused on building the scale to address the needs of our businesses around the world,” averred Coburn.