Bhubaneswar, Dec. 10: IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today formally inaugurated the Phase-II of its campus at Kalinga Park here and announced further expansion plans in Odisha by doubling the number of its employees over the next few years.

TCS now employs around 4,500 people in the state. Odisha has around 100 IT firms, including Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Infosys and Mind Tree, which roughly employ 15,000 people.

Inaugurating the park, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said although Odisha was emerging as an IT hub, a lot more needed to be done.

"The IT sector has remained a priority sector for the state government. We will be spending around Rs 4,000 crore from the state budget for the sector in the next five years. We will try to create a congenial business environment to make Odisha a preferred IT destination. More Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) will be set up in the state shortly," he said.

Developed over 45 acres, Kalinga Park is a part of the company's global network delivery model.

Designed as India's first Platinum-rated LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) IT campus and billed as one of the greenest buildings in India, the campus is an approved special economic zone and will serve global TCS customers in industries such as banking and financial services, retail, telecom, manufacturing, and government with a focus on technology areas such as enterprise solutions, assurance services and IT services.

Speaking on the occasion, TCS CEO and MD N. Chandrasekaran said: "Odisha has a strong education ecosystem that is helping source great talent from the region. We are delighted with the growth of our operations and the support of the state government. This will help us drive growth of the IT industry in the state."

"We have tied up with academic institutions of the state and hiring 2,500 professionals every year," said Chandrashekhar adding that TCS was an active member of the state innovative council and continued to work on several important social sector projects.

"We have been working with KISS and also for bettering the engineering education of the state," he said.

TCS has been operating in Odisha since 2009 and is among the top software exporters from Odisha.

NEW KID ON THE BLOCK

• TCS Kalinga Park is built on 45 acres
• It has capacity for 4000 employees
• 62 per cent employees are aged less than 30
• 33 per cent of employees are women
• Will serve global clients in energy and resources, retail, banking and financial services and the Middle-East market

THE COMPANY & THE STATE

• Employs 2500 professionals every year
• Building science labs in 200 schools
• Creating sanitation facilities for 8000 families
• Training 1205 underprivileged youth, of whom 112 were selected and 92 joined TCS
• Technical support for tribal empowerment and livelihood programmes
• Partnering with state government on secretariat workflow automation system
• Facilitating Odisha e-municipality service
• Dibyendu Mishra and Krishnendu Mohapatra from DAV Pokhariput were the national runners up at the TCS IT Wiz finals, 2014
• Support to the disabled, empowering initiatives for security personnel and women support staff