Cognizant to launch operations in Vizag on December 12

In a major boost to strengthening innovation and tech ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh, Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), a global leader in technology and professional services, will be launching its operations from its temporary campus here on December 12.

Cognizant's temporary facility will have a seating capacity for 800 associates until the scheduled completion of the first phase of the permanent campu by early 2029. The company is hopeful that with its abundant talent pool and robust infrastructure, Visakhapatnam stands as a strong partner in Cognizant's mission to develop the digital workforce of tomorrow, especially in India’s tier 2 cities.

The thrust of big players to shift to tier-2 cities has also come handy for Andhra Pradesh in attracting major investments to Visakhapatnam, which has the advantage of supplying knowledge workers from local universities and colleges.

When contacted, Murali Bulusu, Director, Dreamchip Electronics Private Limited, told Bizz Buzz on Wednesday, said "Cognizant's entry along with TCS and other big players will give a boost to the digital economy so as to encourage technology skills of local youth. We techies are very much excited over the developments, which have the potential to change the local IT and ITES landscape as well as the regional economy. It will certainly have a big cascading effect."

An official of IT, Electronics and Communications confirmed that Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and IT and Electronics Minister Nara Lokesh will take part in the inauguration of the temporary campus at a rented building at Rushikonda, the main IT hub in the city and perform the ground-breaking ceremony for the permanent campus at Kapuluppada in Madhurawada area. The company was given nearly 22 acres on payment of a token amount of 99 paise per acre along with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to attract anchor players so as to augment the innovation and technology ecosystem in the State. TCS is getting ready to launch its operations shortly by refurbishing the Millennium Towers A and B, in which the State Government has provided space temporarily.

After clearance from the State Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Naidu, Cognizant announced in June that Cognizant announced a major expansion of its India operations with plans to develop a state-of-the-art campus in Visakhapatnam. The company declared "the proposed campus will be spread across 22-acres in Kapuluppada, IT Hills, a site allocated by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. With an investment of ₹1,583 crore, the campus will be developed in three phases, creating over 8,000 employment opportunities and further elevating Cognizant’s advanced capabilities in AI and digital transformation delivery for clients worldwide."

TCS is investing heavily on its facility in Visakhapatnam with the scope for job opportunities in IT, data, AI, cloud and support. Together with Cognizant, TCS facility will provide a total workforce of 20,000 in the next few years. TCS has committed an investment of ₹.1370 crore. Another IT giant, Accenture has already approached the State Government for allotment of 10 acres and efforts are on to convince Infosys, which has a development centre since past few years at a rented building at Rushikonda to scale up its operations and set up a permanent campus.

Lokesh, who is now on a trip to the United States, took to X (formerly Twitter) to say: "It was a pleasure to meet Sundar Pichai, CEO @Google along with Thomas Kurian & Bikash Koley in San Francisco. I thanked Google for their landmark $15B investment in the Visakhapatnam AI Data Center - set to be one of the largest FDI projects outside the US. We reviewed progress and discussed accelerating timelines. I also invited Google to explore a drone assembly, calibration & testing unit in our upcoming Drone City and to deepen the server manufacturing ecosystem in AP." Earlier, at the CII Partnership Summit, he declared the government's resolve to transform Visakhapatnam into a prominent tech and data hub.