Cognizant expands operations in India to tap into talent pool

Global technology major Cognizant is expanding its operations in India, including in tier-2 cities, to tap into the talent available there, its Americas business president Surya Gummadi said.

Speaking to PTI here during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, he said India has been an integral part of Cognizant's strategy, and it recently expanded its operations into Visakhapatnam, Indore and Gujarat's Gift City, among others.

"The tier-two expansion is a key element of the strategy. And along with that, we are also expanding into the major cities.


"We are expanding in Chennai, we are expanding in Hyderabad, we are expanding in Bengaluru and Pune as well," he said, noting that the expansion depends on the client's needs.

"So, expansion in the major cities plus doubling down on the tier two cities to talent into those cities is something that we do," he said.

"India has always been an integral part of the Cognizant strategy, and now it is an integral part of Cognizant's AI strategy as well," he said.

Gummadi said the bulk of the associates, who help clients with Cognizant's AI solutions, are based in India, though they also have our associates based in the US and in the local countries of the clients.

"We also have our production centres in India," he said.

On India's AI readiness, he said India has always been at the forefront of navigating technology shift and the education in the country has already been pivoted or adjusted to this AI era.

"We continue to recruit a lot of fresh graduates from Indian colleges, along with hiring in the US. We are seeing that shift in the educational system towards AI, and we are getting partially ready talent," he noted.

On Cognizant's GCC business, which he runs, Giummadi said GCC has been one of the key components of the company's strategy.

Cognizant itself was born as a GCC for Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, and over the years, it has helped many clients set up GCCs in India and in other places, he said.

"Our GCC strategy is again four-pronged. We help clients set up greenfield GCCs, we operate it with them, or we build, operate and transfer the GCC. We also work with existing GCCs in helping them expand, sometimes."

"We also offer a catalogue of services for clients who may not need full service. We offer network infrastructure, real estate, talent, training and even recruitment as our services.

"In some cases, clients want to change their GCC model or carve it out, and we help there also," he said.