Infosys to open innovation hub in Rhode Island;create 500 jobs

IT major Infosys today said it will set up a design and innovation hub in Rhode Island, US, a move that will provide employment to 500 American workers over the next five years.

Earlier this year, the Bengaluru-headquartered company had said it will set up four innovation hubs and hire a total of 10,000 locals for its US operations in the next two years.

It has already announced two of these centres at Raleigh, North Carolina and Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Infosys has entered into a multi-year partnership with the State of Rhode Island to establish an Infosys Design and Innovation Hub," it said in a statement.

Infosys will also hire 500 American workers in Rhode Island over the next five years, the statement added.

"Today's partnership with Rhode Island marks another important step forward for Infosys in the US. The state's educational institutions, design-rich environment, and economic development tools, positioned Rhode Island competitively for this type of specialist partnership," Infosys President Ravi Kumar said in a statement.

He added that the development will enhance Infosys' ability to provide design-driven, digital technologies across the US.

Infosys, which employs about 2 lakh people globally, saw over 60 per cent of its USD 10.2 billion revenue in the 2016- 17 fiscal coming from the North American market.

The new hires in Rhode Island will include experienced designers, design architects, specialists in information design and technical experts, Infosys said.

"We are excited to welcome Infosys to Rhode Island. Because of our investments in higher education and job training at CCRI and other institutions across the state, Rhode Islanders are well-equipped and well-prepared to compete for these good paying jobs," state Governor Gina Raimondo said.

Indian IT firms have significantly ramped up local hiring in the US in the past many months.

These efforts are also seen to be aimed at wooing the Donald Trump administration that has been critical of outsourcing firms for "unfairly" taking jobs away from the US workers.