BHUBANESWAR: After Deloitte, US-based multinational company Cognizant has set its foot in Odisha by opening a state-of-the-art centre in the city. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik inaugurated the new facility at Odisha Technology Centre here on Sunday.
A $19.4 billion MNC, Cognizant is one of the world’s leading IT services providers that engineers modern businesses which improve everyday life. The company employs more than 3.5 lakh professionals worldwide.
Addressing the gathering, the chief minister said the entry of Cognizant marks a significant milestone for new Odisha and further solidifies its reputation as a leading IT investment destination in the country.
“The state has emerged as a destination of the future with a growing scale of investment, talent pool and ambition. All these factors have become the cornerstones of our state’s journey towards growth and development which is fuelled by a robust ecosystem encouraging entrepreneurship, technological innovation, and new age businesses,” he said.
Echoing similar sentiments, Minister of State for Electronics and IT (E&IT) Tusharkanti Behera said Bhubaneswar has become a global hotspot for IT, ESDM and consulting companies.
The new centre of Cognizant will create more opportunities for the state’s youth and drive the economy upwards, he said.
The new centre of Cognizant, spread over 52,000 sq feet, is designed to accommodate 1,000 of the company’s associates in a hybrid work environment. The centre is projected to be expanded further to accommodate over 5,000 associates in the next two years.
The facility enables associates to work in modern and collaborative spaces in diverse areas including AI, ML, IoT, digital engineering and robotic automation, among other advanced technologies.
Principal secretary of E&IT department Manoj Kumar Mishra said opening of Cognizant centre not only signifies the company’s confidence in the state’s potential but also highlights the remarkable strides Odisha has made in attracting top industries to its burgeoning IT landscape.
Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar S, the first Odia CEO of any Fortune 200 company, said Cognizant will continue to offer its award-winning learning and development programme to equip its associates with future-ready digital capabilities, helping them continually improve their capabilities to serve global clients.
Chairman of 5T initiatives and Nabin Odisha VK Pandian, special secretary of E&IT Manas Panda and CMD of Cognizant India Rajesh Nambiar were present.