Indian IT company Tech Mahindra invests in new Makers Lab at Adastral Park, Suffolk

International It giant Tech Mahindra, a $4.7 billion company, is investing in a new Suffolk research centre.

A research and development centre ‘Makers Lab’ has been established to work in collaboration with its long-term client and partner, British Telecom (BT), at the Adastral Park research campus near Ipswich, home of the world-renowned BT Labs.

Makers Lab is also a part of the growing business incubation cluster Innovation Martlesham, in Suffolk.

The new centre could eventually mean dozens of local jobs; both permanent roles and internships for talented university students from the University of Suffolk.

This investment, along with a new office in Salford, were announced when Prime Minister Theresa May met the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in London.

More than 100 jobs are expected to be created.

The Makers Lab will focus its research on major technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and quantum computing to improve customer experiences in communications. The roll-out of 5G is also a major target.

Mr CP Gurnani, CEO and MD of Tech Mahindra, said: “Innovation is the key to survival in the digital future. The UK-India Innovation partnership draws from the best learning and skills of both developed and developing economies in shaping the digital future. We at Tech Mahindra are taking the philosophy of disruption by design to our client ecosystem, academia and people through our research arm Makers Lab in UK.”

These investments are part of Tech Mahindra’s TechMNxt Charter, its global program to explore emerging technologies like AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and AI-infused IoT solutions, designed to preempt and anticipate customer’s evolving and dynamic needs. The underlying priority is the application of the trending technology to solve real business problems of customers by collaborating and co-innovating with startups, academia and partners.

Tech Mahindra is a $4.7 billion IT services company employing 115,200 plus professionals across 90 countries, helping over 903 global customers including Fortune 500 companies.

Its convergent, digital, design experiences, innovation platforms and reusable assets connect across a number of technologies to deliver tangible business value and experiences to the company’s stakeholders. Tech Mahindra is amongst the Fab 50 companies in Asia (Forbes 2016 list).

Tech Mahindra is part of $19 billion Mahindra Group that employs more than 200,000 people in over 100 countries.