Infosys’s Indianapolis hub to create 3,000 jobs as US operations expand
27 Apr 2018
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Information technology service provider Infosys on Thursday announced plans to build a campus in Indianapolis, investing about $245 million that will generate around 3,000 jobs in the city in the coming years, as the company continues its expansion in the United States.
The Bangalore, India-based company said the proposed campus to be built over 141 acres, at a now-vacant site of the former Indianapolis International Airport terminal, will house a $35 million training centre.
The center will be a tech hub that teaches its American workers computer science skills such as big data and cloud technology. Its employees will include engineers, developers, analysts, architects and technology consultants, Infosys president Ravi Kumar said.
Infosys will be entitled to incentives and subsidies of as much as $101.8 million from the state and the city for the project, according to the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
“This is a powerful partnership. It’s going to change the way we do business,” Gov Eric Holcomb said during Thursday’s announcement event with vice president Mike Pence, his predecessor as governor.
The Infosys project marks the largest jobs commitment the Indiana economic development agency had received since it was established in 2005, Holcomb said.
The Indianapolis centre is the first among four technology hubs planned across the United states, the others to be built in North Carolina, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
The company had last year revealed plans for establishing an Indianapolis tech center with 2,000 employees by the end of 2021. This has now gone up to 3,000 employees by the year 2023.
But, with the overall financial incentives from the state expected to be worth as much as nearly $34,000 per worker, the partnership with Infosys has drawn some criticism.
State incentives include $31 million in conditional tax credits and training grants promised last May.
Holcomb said the new tech center will cultivate a “unique, vibrant, high-tech ecosystem” that is feeding off the colleges and universities within the state while building the best tech hub in the Midwest.
Kumar, while down-playing the fiscal incentives, said it was the talent pool in Indiana that attracted the company to the state.
Infosys, which employs more than 200,000 workers worldwide, has been under fire from the Trump administration over misuse of H-1B visas that tech companies heavily rely on to temporarily bring in workers from other countries at lower wages.
