UST Global bags Rs 190 crore from Madhya Pradesh govt to digitize local bodies

Company looking at innovative start-ups for investment, says CEO Sajan Pillai

Kerala-based IT services company UST Global has bagged a contract from Madhya Pradesh government to digitise the local bodies in the state. The $30 million (around Rs 190 crore) project aims at enabling citizens for various citizen centric services such as electronic bill payments and filing of grievances on a digitally enabled platform.

The move comes in the backdrop of the Digital India campaign that the Centre is spearheading across the country. Currently, many states, including Kerala and Karnataka, have started to shift to digital platforms to provide governmental services to the citizens.

The company that has a strong foothold in the US, also said they are on a major expansion drive in India. “We look to hire more to our team in India and expand to more cities,” said Sajan Pillai, CEO, UST Global.

The company currently has around 15,500 employees globally of around 8,500 are in India.

In line with increasing the number of employees in India, UST Global looks to trace, train and hire 10,000 individuals with disabilities in the country over the next 3 years as a part of the company’s ‘Impact India’ programme. “This is apart from the 5,000 that we are already planning to hire in India in the same time period,” he added

In addition, the company is also in the final stages of establishing a large campus in Thiruvananthapuram with an investment of close to $200 mn. It is also looking to build a similar campus in Kochi soon.

Pillai said the company has plans to focus more on India and are looking at the start-up segment closely. The company already is setting up a corporate venture capital fund to invest in innovative start-ups. “We have launched a venture capital fund in Bengaluru to invest in start-ups in areas like mathematical innovations and material science innovations,” he said.

UST Global Group revenues presently stand at around $1.1 billion and Pillai said the goal is to touch $3 billion in a couple of years.