ARTICLE BY GOWTHAM
History
Infosys was founded on 2 July 1981 by seven entrepreneurs, N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Kris Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K Dinesh, Ashok Arora, and with N. S. Raghavan officially being the first employee of the company. The founders started the company with an initial investment of INR 10,000.[4] The company was incorporated as "Infosys Consultants Pvt Ltd." in Model Colony, Pune as the registered office.[5]
Infosys headquarters in Bengaluru, India
Infosys went public in 1993. Interestingly, Infosys IPO was under subscribed but it was bailed out by US investment bank Morgan Stanley which picked up 13% of equity at the offer price of Rs. 95 per share.[6] The share price surged to Rs. 8,100 by 1999. By the year 2000 Infosys's shares touched Rs. 310. This, before the catastrophic incident of September 11th, which caused share prices to suddenly fall.[7]
According to Forbes magazine, since listing on the Bombay Stock Exchange till the year 2000, Infosys' sales and earnings compounded at more than 70% a year.[8] In the year 2000, President of the United States Bill Clinton complimented India on its achievements in high technology areas citing the example of Infosys along with Wipro and Satyam Computers.[9] Infosys will invest $100 million (Rs 440 crore) on establishing a 20,000-seater campus in Shanghai.[10]
In 2001, it was rated Best Employer in India by Business Today.[11] Infosys was rated best employer to work for in 2000, 2001, and 2002 by Hewitt Associates. In 2007, Infosys received over 1.3 million applications and hired fewer than 3% of applicants.[12]
Infosys was the only Indian company to win the Global MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises) award for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, and is inducted into the Global Hall of Fame for the same.[13][14]
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Current share holding
Promoters and their families hold 16% of Infosys stock. Life Insurance Corporation of India with 3.84% is the single largest share holder. Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund owned by Abu Dhabi and the Government of Singapore also holds significant shares. The rest of the shares are owned by Financial institutions and individual investors.[15]
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Initiatives
Infosys has the largest corporate university in the world, located on its Mysore campus.[16]
In 1996, Infosys created the Infosys Foundation in the state of Karnataka, operating in the areas of health care, social rehabilitation and rural uplift, education, arts and culture. Since then, this foundation has spread to the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Orissa and Punjab. The Infosys Foundation is headed by Mrs. Sudha Murthy, wife of Narayana Murthy.
Since 2004, Infosys has embarked on a series of initiatives to consolidate and formalize its academic relationships worldwide under the umbrella of a program called AcE - Academic Entente.[17] Infosys' Global Internship Program, known as InStep, is one of the key components of the Academic Entente initiative. It offers live projects to interns from the universities around the world. InStep recruits undergraduate, graduate and PhD students from business, technology, and liberal arts universities to take part in an 8 to 24 week internship at one of Infosys' global offices. InStep interns are also provided career opportunities with Infosys.
In 1997, Infosys started the "Catch them Young Program", to expose the urban youth to the world of Information Technology by conducting a summer vacation program. The program is aimed at developing an interest and understanding of computer science and information technology. This program is targeted at students in Grade IX level.[18]
In 2002, the Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania and Infosys started the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award. This technology award recognizes enterprises and individuals who have transformed their businesses and the society leveraging information technology. Past winners include Samsung, Amazon.com, Capital One, RBS and ING Direct.
Infosys has the largest corporate education center in the world in Mysore. It can accommodate 14000 candidates at one time.[19]
In 2009, Infosys created Infosys Prize for excellence in Physical Sciences, Mathematical Sciences, Engineering and Computer Science, Life Sciences and Social Sciences.[20]
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Research
Infosys developed a corporate R&D wing called Software Engineering and Technology Labs (SETLabs). SETLabs was founded in 2000 to carry out applied research for the development of processes, frameworks and methodologies to effectively capture customer requirements and to iron out common critical issues during a project life cycle.[21] Various broad groups are Software Engg Lab, Convergence Lab, Innovation Lab, Center for KDIS, Security and Privacy Lab and Distributed Computing Laboratory.
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Charity
In 2005, Infosys donated 10m rupees (about $226,000) to help with the effects of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake in Pakistan.[22] Infosys does not currently have an office in Pakistan.
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Global offices
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Asia Pacific
India - Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai , Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram , Hyderabad, Jaipur, Mangalore, Mysore, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram Kolkata(2012),[23] Australia - Melbourne, Sydney and China - Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou Hong Kong - Hong Kong, Japan - Tokyo, Mauritius - Mauritius, New Zealand - Wellington, UAE - Sharjah, Philippines - Taguig City, Fiji Island - Suva and Thailand - Bangkok
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North America
Canada - Toronto, USA - Atlanta (GA), Bellevue (WA), Bridgewater (NJ), Charlotte (NC), Southfield (MI), Fremont (CA), Houston (TX), Glastonbury (CT), Lake Forest (CA), Lisle (IL), New York, Phoenix (AZ), Plano (TX), Quincy (MA), Reston (VA) and Mexico - Monterrey
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Europe
Czech Republic - Brno, Belgium - Brussels, Denmark - Copenhagen, Finland - Helsinki, France - Paris, Germany - Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Italy - Milano, Norway - Oslo, Poland - Łódź, The Netherlands - Amsterdam, Spain - Madrid, Burgos, Sweden - Stockholm, Switzerland - Zürich, Geneva and UK - Canary Wharf, London
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South America
Brazil - Belo Horizonte
Infosys, Pune campus
Movie Theatre, Mysore campus
Swimming pool & spa, Bangalore campus
Mangalore campus
Bangalore campus
Infosys Thiruvananthapuram campus
Dancing fountains, Bangalore campus
Pune campus
Swimming pool, Mysore campus
Infosys Chennai main block at Mahindra World City, New Chennai
The intergerated Eco-Friendly Block at Chennai,one of the biggest in the world
The largest TV screen in Asia, Bangalore campus
BPO Building, Bangalore campus
Canteen, Bangalore campus
