INDIANAPOLIS — A top Indian technology company with a growing presence in the Hoosier State has selected Indianapolis as its training base for the thousands of U.S. workers it anticipates hiring in coming years, including 3,000 in Indiana.
The Thursday announcement by Infosys that it plans to develop a $245 million, 141-acre campus at the site of a former airport terminal on the city's southwest side was regarded as so significant that Republican Vice President Mike Pence and U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta were among the dignitaries on hand for the announcement.
The former Hoosier governor described the Infosys project as "a great new chapter in the life of a growing Indiana economy."
Pence also credited Republican President Donald Trump for enacting tax, regulatory and energy policies that made it possible.
"It is a record of success that has come home to Indiana one more time," Pence said. "It's a new day for opportunities for working families and small businesses, it's a new day for growth and opportunity, and I truly do believe the best is yet to come."
According to the Indiana Economic Development Corp., Infosys initially will focus on a 70.5-acre site to build its state-of-the-art U.S. Education Center and a 250-person residential facility, both featuring environmentally sustainable buildings and green spaces.
Groundbreaking is scheduled to begin by the end of the year with completion anticipated in late 2020, the IEDC said.
Infosys currently employs 150 workers in downtown Indianapolis. By 2023, it expects to have 3,000 workers in the capital city, up from the 2,000 jobs Infosys promised in 2017 to bring to the state.
"For the last year we've been working with the government to make Indiana the tech hub of the Midwest," said Ravi Kumar, Infosys president.
Kumar said Infosys always has invested in advanced technology and skills for its workers, and has experience running the largest corporate training center in the world at its home base in Mysore, India.
"Our new Indianapolis facility will prepare our American employees — and those of our clients — to master the kinds of advanced skills that are now required to succeed in our digital future," Kumar said.
Infosys employs 204,000 workers worldwide, primarily in information technology and business consulting.
It last year announced plans to hire 10,000 U.S. employees by 2019 at hubs in Indiana, North Carolina, Connecticut and Rhode Island after Trump decided to scale back the number of visas available for foreign workers seeking jobs at American businesses.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, who relentlessly has focused on improving Hoosier worker skills, particularly in technology, said the Infosys campus will alter both the state's economic and physical landscape in the years ahead.
"This is a powerful partnership that's going to change the way we do business, that's going to change the way we interact with one another — not just here in the state of Indiana, but with our neighbors across the country, and, in fact, across the world," Holcomb said.
He also joked that, "You can't even spell 'Indiana' without starting with 'India,' so this was a natural fit."
Based on its job creation plans, the IEDC has offered Infosys $62.5 million in conditional tax credits, up to $20 million in infrastructure grants and $1.5 million in training grants.
The tax credits only can be claimed after Hoosiers are hired.