Infosys to offer expertise in building smart cities

Global software major Infosys Ltd Wednesday announced that it would provide expertise to the urban development ministry in building smart cities across the country.

"We will develop our Mysuru campus as a model smart city to offer expertise in smart infrastructure planning and sustainable building technology to the urban development ministry," Infosys chief executive Vishal Sikka said after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

The $8.3-billion company's smart city concept is based on leveraging the power of data and technologies in building and using IT to minimise energy and resource consumption, increase use of renewable energy and reduce waste.

"We will invest and develop our 350-acre Mysuru campus in Karnataka as a model smart city by April to demonstrate advances in urban development," Sikka said in a statement later.

The company's sprawling campus at Mysuru, about 150 km from Bengaluru, is a mini city, with 12-million square feet built-up area and has a capacity to host 15,000 trainees, 8,000 employees and several thousand contract workers.

"We believe that the digital revolution creates opportunities to reshape the world for better and improve quality of life.

"With our experience in computing technologies and in managing urban spaces totalling 2,600 acres, with a built-up area of 39 million square feet across the country, our model ecosystem at Mysuru will serve as an example of smart city innovations," Sikka said on the occasion.

The outsourcing major has been using industry practices such as radiant cooling, day lighting and effective retrofit strategies to reduce its energy consumption.

"Digital technologies promise to revolutionise the physical spaces we inhabit. As our company's spiritual centre and a magnificent space in which we learn and teach, our Mysuru campus offers the best venue for this endeavour," Sikka noted.

The company has set up a command centre at its corporate headquarters in Bengaluru to monitor, manage and optimise resources usage across its software development centre in the country.

"The command centre analyses data of energy consumption, building operations and uses advanced algorithms for energy saving, predictive maintenance to ensure operational excellence," the statement added.