West Bengal IT Minister Manabendra Mukherjee recently announced that the state’s IT Policy, which was announced in January 2000, will soon be modified.

Mukherjee said, “We need to redefine our IT policy.” He made this statement when showcasing the ‘IT prowess’ of the State to a select group of industry captains, representatives of chambers of commerce, and media personalities. Buoyed by the favourable report submitted by the international consulting firm McKinsey & Co, the state government has once again started wooing investors.

The state has recently unveiled a separate policy for the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) segment. According to Mukherjee, in line with the changing IT scenario, the state government felt that certain clauses of the earlier policy needed to be reviewed.

Though he declined to comment on the proposed policy, he said that the IT department has decided to set up a four-tier structure to help investors. The redefined version of the IT Policy is being drafted and would be announced in the next couple of months, he added. The new policy would be a comprehensive document laying down all the policy matters, a set of incentives and other related information.

In order to allow faster project clearance and easier redressal of complaints, the IT department will have a clear line of authority for project clearance when it announces a revised IT policy, the minister said.

Explaining this, D P Patra, secretary, Department of IT for the West Bengal government said that the new policy would have provision for four-tier mechanism of monitoring and decision-making on IT investments, which would be headed by a Cabinet sub-committee under the chairmanship of the chief minister.

The West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corpo-ration (Webel) would continue to function as the first window for project clearances. But mega IT projects with investments of Rs 5 crore and above would go directly to the next tier, comprising top IT department officials. In case of a problem, the proposal would be taken up by a high-power committee, comprising the state Chief secretary and the secretaries from the IT, finance and industry departments.

Patra explained that the structure had been carefully planned to eliminate unnecessary project delays. “The Government would act as facilitators and try to remove the hindrances,” he added.

Joydeep Sengupta, consultant at McKinsey, who is part of the consultancy team chalking out a blue print for IT investment in the state, said that perception was a major hurdle for investment in the State and that the government’s resolve to facilitate projects would go a long way in altering this negative perception.

“While it is partly due to its past experiences, lack of information on the State and the infrastructure it offers, adds to this negative image,” said Sengupta. He also said that marking ITES as an ‘essential service’ in the ITES policy was another positive step.

Patra pointed out that the State has a huge pool of talented human resources and all the ingredients to emerge as an ITES- hub of the country in the years to come.