Swati Bharadwaj
HYDERABAD: Evernorth, the pharmacy, care, and benefits solution division of Cigna Group, on Tuesday formally flagged off its first global innovation hub outside the US in Hyderabad, where it plans to house over 1000 employees in the first phase.
The Hyderabad GCC, which is tipped to emerge as Evernorth’s largest in time to come, was inaugurated by Telangana IT & industries minister Duddilla Sridhar Babu and Cigna Group’s global chief information officer Noelle Eder.
Sridhar Babu said with the addition of Evernorth to Hyderabad’s thriving GCC ecosystem, Hyderabad has further solidified its position as a global hub for innovation and excellence.
The facility, which started in April 2024 with just eight employees, has today grown to around 700 and is slated to hit the 1000 employees mark in early 2025, said Neel Chopdekar, SVP and COO for tech and operations, Evernorth Health Services.
“It’s not a small decision for a large Fortune 16 company like Cigna to establish an investment and presence in India with an innovation centre in Hyderabad. The reason we wanted to be in this market is to get direct access to the tech, analytics and engineering talent that Hyderabad offers and we are so pleased with the quality of talent,” he said.
Though he did not divulge investment figures, Chopdekar said the company already has two floors of around 1 lakh sq ft each operational and hopes to have the third floor up and running in January 2025 and the fourth one in April 2025.
Yadhu Kishore Nandikolla, HR director, Evernorth Health Services India, said the company has kicked off its engagement with local colleges with the first MoU being inked with Vardhaman College of Engineering in Hyderabad, where it has set up an innovation lab. “We are also talking to premier institutions like IIITH, IIT-H and BITS Pilani for research projects and building a robust talent pipeline,” he said.