PwC boosts Kolkata presence with two new innovation centres
PwC India has identified Kolkata as a crucial driver of growth, announcing the development of a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in artificial intelligence (AI) as well as an Internet of Things (IoT) lab in the city. The total investment in these projects is likely to amount to Rs.100 crore.
Managing Partner for PwC's operations in East India Arnab Basu indicated that the move is aimed at shifting the overwhelming focus on Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru as major business and tech centres. These cities have historically been home to a host of tech activity, which has placed them in stark focus recently.
As businesses in India become more tech-centred, they are ramping up their investment in the three IT innovation hubs. Big Four accounting and advisory firm Deloitte recently announced that it had doubled its headcount in Hyderabad to go from 40,000 to 80,000 people.
PwC appears to be going against this tide, looking to bring talent back into the eastern market. The firm is willing to invest heavily in making Kolkata an attractive tech innovation hub, exemplified by the latest CoE and IoT lab. The two projects are expected to create as many as 1,200 jobs in Kolkata.
For its new body of hires, PwC is seeking talent in the engineering and analytics domain, each with an increasingly central role to play in a digitalising economy. In the AI sphere, India is looking to become a centre for global innovation and experimentation, while simultaneously looking to feed the global demand for analytics talent.
PwC’s Kolkata operations will contribute significantly to these objectives, restoring the region as a major financial centre. Aside from engineering and analytics, the firm is looking to hire experts in digital transformation, cloud and blockchain. Counting the new additions, the firm’s workforce in Kolkata is expected to surpass the 7,000 mark.
“These facilities or labs, as they are more commonly known as are the first of their kind for PwC in India. Housed in PwC’s newly constructed 60,000 sq ft facility in t hese labs will be used to incubate new solutions to address issues that are impacting businesses globally like Industry 4.0, Responsible AI , Blockchain,” said Basu to the Times of India/
East, especially Kolkata, has been an important part of our 140-year-old legacy and it continues to play a pivotal part in our growth journey. We are the only Big4 firm to have a large consulting delivery centre in this part of the country. We see immense potential in the workforce of the region, who are talented, committed and eager to learn. Today, we are 6,000-people strong in the region and are committed to develop the pool here by offering them multi-competency growth opportunities,” he added.
