Vishal Sikka meets Narendra Modi; dedicates $250 million to innovate in India

New Delhi: Infosys CEO, Vishal Sikka met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and disclosed that his company will spend USD 250 million (over Rs 1,500 crore) to   fund innovations in software and services in India. The chief of India's second largest IT services firm also discussed with Modi ways in which the company can participate in the Prime Minister's vision of smart and digitally empowered India.

Infosys will develop software for managing the kumbh mela   scheduled in Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) in 2016.  Sikka, the first non-founder CEO of Infosys, said Modi   has agreed to dedicate the company's Mysore campus as the   first model smart city in the country in April this year. "Today, I had a meeting with the Prime Minister. We had a   talk on smart cities, smart infrastructure, which is close to   his heart. "And the other big area is innovation. PM has a vision for innovation. As announced last week, we have a USD 500   million Innovation Fund. Of this, we have decided that half of   this, which is a little over Rs 1,500 crore, will be dedicated   to just innovation in India. We will call it Innovate in   India," Sikka said.  

On smart cities, he said Infosys campuses are one of the   most amazing places in the world. They are green and energy efficient and work as smart units. "Our Mysore campus is a small smart city. It has 30,000   people living and working there at any given day. We are going   to make our Mysore campus the first model smart city and the   PM has very graciously accepted our invitation to the Mysore   campus and dedicate it to the nation in April," he added.

Spread over 350 acres, Infosys' Mysore campus, which also   houses its university, has more than 200,000 trees and is energy-efficient.