Cognizant to add 18,000 IT professionals

Mumbai: Software firm Cognizant Technology Solutions will add about 18,000 IT professionals to its current workforce of 38,000 before the year-end, a top company official said.

"The problem is not the quantity of human resources available but quality personnel across the country," Cognizant president and managing director R Chandrasekaran told a workshop jointly organised by board of apprenticeship training, Southern Region and BHEL.

Chandrasekaran said his company was trying to tackle the problem using a three-pronged approach by running a training academy, organising job fairs and selecting people from institutions like board of apprenticeship training, ministry of HRD.

Although the company was hosting its offices on foreign soil, almost 50 per cent of the firm's staff was from southern India. Cognizant has two units in the US, one in China, one in Toronto, Canada and another at Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Besides, the Indian company is also eyeing units in Eastern Europe, Chandrasekaran said.

Cognizant, he said, was evincing interest in tier II cities like Tiruchirappalli, Coimbatore and Kochi. Kochi would be the company's eighth location to operate, and the unit's formal inauguration is scheduled to take place any time, he added.