Airtel plans to open a new technology centre in Pune and is looking to increase its in-house digital engineering capabilities. This new technology hub will be the fourth for Airtel in India and the first ever in the western region. The new tech centre in Pune is part of the Company’s endeavour towards becoming a digital services company.
Initially, the new centre will house about 500 digital engineers possessing diverse skills including data analytics, machine learning, DevOps, tech ops and more, for multiple roles, confirms Pradipt Kapoor, chief information officer (CIO), Bharti Airtel.
“Airtel is rapidly scaling up its in-house digital talent pool to support its transformation into a digital telco. Pune being an established IT and tech hub, makes it an obvious choice for Airtel to tap into the talent pool and also drive cross-industry collaboration,” shares Kapoor.
Other technology hubs of Airtel are located in Gurgaon, Bengaluru (Airtel X-Labs) and Noida. These facilities employs close to 3000 people. Airtel is reportedly the largest employer of tech talent outside the tech and IT sector in India. The Company is hiring from engineering institutes such as IITs, NITS, IIITs for its digital technology hubs.
Having invested about $46 billion in the last couple of decades to develop the finest technology and digital infrastructure, the digital engineering teams at Airtel have developed various digital apps and platforms that see 40 per cent of India’s economic and digital activity. According to the Company, digital assets such as Airtel Thanks app, Wynk Music app and Airtel Xstream content platform have been fully developed by its in-house digital engineering teams. Additionally, Airtel’s digital engineering teams have also developed C-PaaS solution, Airtel IQ and ad-tech platform, Airtel Ads, along with Airtel IoT and many more.
