Cognizant opens new campus in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: IT major Cognizant opened its new campus here on Wednesday which is expected to create about 15,000 new jobs. The new centre, spread across nearly one million sq ft, was inaugurated by Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy who assured all support to the company for its expansion and growth. A company official said 3,46,000 employees work globally of which 70 per cent (2,40,000) are in India of which about 57,000 are in Hyderabad as on date.

Speaking on the occasion, Revanth Reddy said the new facility will soon make Hyderabad the largest presence for Cognizant in India. Reddy, who returned to Hyderabad on Wednesday after a tour of US and South Korea, said he met the Cognizant team in the US and assured 100 per cent support to Cognizant for all growth plans.

The CM thanked the company for spending substantially on CSR activities for various good causes. "This new facility will soon make Hyderabad the largest presence for Cognizant in India. I hope you will soon grow so big you will have one lakh employees in Hyderabad," he said. Noting that his government plans to develop a 'fourth city' on city outskirts, after Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Cyberabad, he wished that Cognizant should have a presence in the planned city which he described as the 'future city'.

The Chief Minister also shared his vision to transform Telangana into a one trillion dollar economy in the next 10 years. Telangana would like to "compete with the world" and not with its neighbouring states in attracting industrial investments. He recalled the historical growth of Hyderabad and the contributions of N Chandrababu Naidu and also Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to the city's development as Chief Ministers in undivided Andhra Pradesh. Revanth Reddy said Hyderabad emerged as a major city as there were no differences with regard to the city's development despite divergent political views.

Referring to the debate in some quarters that there could be flight of investments from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh in view of change of government in the neighbouring state, he said, "I would like to say one thing clearly. My competition is not with Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu. My competition is with the world. I have Hyderabad city with me." The city is also home to companies like Cognizant which provides job opportunities on a large scale, he said. Revanth Reddy said his government is designing the 'fourth city' as the 'future city' to cater to the "requirements of the world". The neighbouring states do not have the advantages like the Hyderabad city or its Outer Ring Road (ORR), its international airport, its climatic conditions, law and order and connectivity to other places, he claimed, inviting investors to invest in Telangana.