West Bengal hardsells Kolkata as IT centre

Circuit EC / Bangalore

The government of West Bengal is pulling out all stops to showcase the potential of Kolkata as an IT destination. Banking upon Kolkata’s low cost of operations, large talent pool, low attrition and wage rates, abundant power and excellent infrastructure, the West Bengal government is hopeful that it would be able to attract hordes of IT and ITeS companies to the city. TCS, Cognizant, IBM and Wipro have already established a presence in Kolkata and many of them have definite plans to expand their operations here. GE Capital, Wipro Spectramind and the Reliance group are in the process of building facilities in the city.

Manabendra Mukherjee, minister-in-charge, Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal said, “Our stress will be on giving a boost to the ITeS sector in the city and we will encourage non-English BPO centres in the city. West Bengal is the first state in the country to declare the IT industry as a public utility service.”

Dr G D Gautama, principal secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal, says, “Kolkata has around 175 IT companies employing around 15,000 IT professionals. Two new software parks are in the process of being developed in the state, which will together account for 140 acres of area for the IT industry.”