Leading aerospace and defence technology company Rolls-Royce, and Indian IT firm Infosys have signed a strategic partnership for sourcing engineering and R&D services for Rolls-Royce’s civil aerospace business.

As part of the overall partnership, Rolls-Royce will transition a significant part of its engineering centre capabilities for civil aerospace in Bengaluru to Infosys.

Over the past decade, Rolls-Royce established a multidisciplinary engineering centre in Bengaluru, and this has been an integral part of Rolls-Royce's engineering and R&D services. The centre covers a mix of engineering capabilities spanning the full range of sub-functions and specialisms in R&D. Going forward, Rolls-Royce will continue these complex engineering activities in India in partnership with Infosys.

Infosys in a statement said it will provide a full range of high-end engineering and R&D services integrated with advanced digital service to Rolls-Royce.

Speaking about the partnership, Kishore Jayaraman, President, Rolls-Royce India & South Asia, said, “India has grown to become a key contributor to the Rolls-Royce global engineering ecosystem, delivering high levels of technical capability to support a broad range of complex business demands. Our vision is to continue this high capability engineering work in India, in partnership with Infosys. Infosys has been a valued partner to Rolls-Royce for many years, and we now look forward to building on this strategic partnership to secure the full range of our engineering capabilities here, while ensuring future growth potential for our engineering talent. We are committed to India and remain positive about the long-term prospects in this market.”

Jasmeet Singh, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Manufacturing, Infosys, said, “We have always believed it is important to integrate the physical knowledge of a product with digital capabilities like Industry 4.0, additive manufacturing, and predictive analytics. The Rolls-Royce engineering team at Bengaluru has been at the forefront of these innovations, and we are delighted to welcome them to Infosys. We have had a long and fruitful association with Rolls-Royce and are looking forward to supporting the company in addressing Civil Aerospace industry challenges. We are confident that this excellent talent will be a great addition to Infosys’ deep experience in turbomachinery. We look forward to continuing to deliver industry-leading solutions to our clients in the aerospace and defence sectors and beyond while providing a great career path to our new colleagues within a rapidly growing ecosystem.”

Infosys said it has been delivering end-to-end solutions to customers in the turbomachinery, propulsion (TMP), aerospace and defence industries.

" The engineering centre for Civil Aerospace will strengthen Infosys’ existing capabilities in Turbomachinery and Propulsion that are currently delivered through a network of engineering centres in Mysore, Baden, and Karlovac," the company said.

Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 150 countries, comprising more than 400 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.

Annual underlying revenue was £15.45 billion in 2019, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. In 2019, Rolls-Royce invested £1.46 billion on research and development.