Aimed at Enhancing an Innovation Ecosystem to Address Industry Challenges Faced by Clients

Infosys, a global leader in consulting and technology services, today announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The State of Israel, to establish and enhance cooperation in industrial research and development. This MoU is a part of the ‘Global Enterprise Collaboration Program’ developed by the Office of the Chief Scientist of Israel to accelerate innovation through a global ecosystem.

The MoU creates a framework for industrial cooperation between Infosys and Israeli corporations in the emerging technology areas of cloud, information security, sensors, analytics, and sustainability. With a strong global client base across industry segments and proven expertise in driving innovation-led growth for businesses, Infosys will bring valuable insights in defining pertinent challenges and solutions across various industries.

Infosys Labs, the research and innovation arm of Infosys, drives research across the ‘Building Tomorrow’s Enterprise’ mega trends that have the potential to transform client business. Committed to the principle of ‘Innovation Co-creation’, Infosys Labs strengthens its existing innovation ecosystem of clients, partners and industry consortia through this MoU.

Speaking on the occasion, Subu Goparaju, Senior Vice President and Head of Infosys Labs said, “This collaboration aligns with our vision to bring together different innovation networks from around the world and make them relevant to our clients. At Infosys, we are looking at leveraging the innovation ecosystem in Israel, as part of evaluating early stage technologies that are relevant for clients to build tomorrow’s enterprises.”

What is Infosys? Who owns the Indian IT giant? How is it linked to the Prime Minister?

Rishi Sunak is continuing to face scrutiny over his family’s financial affairs following a recent row over his wife’s investments.

The Prime Minister is being investigated by a parliamentary watchdog over his failure to declare Akshata Murty’s shareholding in a childcare business.

This is among a number of shareholdings Ms Murty holds both directly and through her venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK.

But the bulk of her wealth most likely comes from her shares in Infosys, the Indian IT giant.

What is Infosys?

Infosys is a global technology company headquartered in Bangalore.

It is India’s second-largest IT services exporter and is estimated to be worth $62billion (£50billion).

According to the company’s website, it is ‘a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting’ and works across more than 50 countries.

It has more than 340,000 employees and more than 1,800 clients.

What are the PM’s links to Infosys?

Infosys was founded in 1981 by N.R. Narayana Murthy, the PM’s father-in-law.

He has two children – daughter Akshata and son Rohan – with his wife Sudha.

According to Forbes, the 76-year-old is personally worth $4billion (£3.2bn) and is among the top 725 richest people in the world.

All of the family own shares in Infosys, according to the company’s latest annual report, with Akshata holding almost 39 million (or 0.93%) of Infosys shares.

This means her stake in the company is worth around $575million (£460m).

Ms Murty was recently estimated to have lost almost £50million in a single day when the value of Infosys shares plummeted earlier this month.

This came after it posted weak quarterly results and poor revenue growth forecasts.

How much does the PM’s wife earn from her Infosys shares?

According to its annual results published this month, Infosys will make two dividend payments to shareholders this financial year.

This means Ms Murty is set for payments of around £6.3m and £6.6m from the company – pushing her earnings from her Infosys shares to almost £13m over 12 months.