Cognizant, a leading provider of IT services on Wednesday opened its Mumbai development centre.

The development centre at the Hiranandani IT Park has about 100 professionals servicing global pharmaceutical customers.

Commenting on the expansion of services, Lakshmi Narayanan, president and CEO, Cognizant said, "Mumbai is a strategic development centre for Cognizant, similar to the centres in Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Coimbatore.

"This centre will strengthen our ability to provide increasing value to our pharmaceutical and financial services customers, tapping into the rich talent pool available here in those industries.  Cognizant currently partners with 5 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies," he added.

The 75,000 sq. ft., development centre has the capacity to accommodate about 750 professionals.

"We will bring our training and development capability that we deploy in India and other international locations to Mumbai, and create IT and BPO professionals that the industry will be proud of," R Chandrasekaran, managing  director, Cognizant said.