Wipro Atlanta software unit to hire 500

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Wipro Technologies, the global IT services business of India's Wipro Ltd, will open a new software development centre in Atlanta, which will employ more than 500 people, it said.

The centre will enable Wipro to provide "localised and closer-to-customer service" for its expanding technology services business in the Americas, it said in a statement late on Monday.

"The work we're doing requires more and more knowledge of the customers' businesses, and you want local people to do that," said P.R. Chandrasekar, president of Wipro Technologies.

In the first year, the Atlanta facility will hire more than 200 people and by its third year of operations, it is expected to employ more than 500 people, it said.

A senior Wipro official had told Reuters last week it planned to set up three software facilities in the United States, in Georgia, Texas and Virginia.

Bangalore-based Wipro also has development centres in Brazil, eastern and western Europe, China, Mexico and Canada.