Bengal poised to take massive leap in IT sector

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has lined up a series of initiatives for taking a giant stride in the information technology (IT) sector.

"A series of activity has been lined up which will give a big boost to the IT sector in the state," IT minister Partha Chatterjee told PTI.

The state IT department would shortly sign an MoU with IT giant Microsoft for setting up a research and training centre in the state.

"An MoU will be signed soon with Microsoft for setting up a research and training centre in the state," Chatterjee said.

Besides this, the government would also set up an IT hub and an incubation centre on Webel's land in Taratola in the metropolis.

The proposed incubation centre would directly employ between 600 to 700 people, Chatterjee said, adding that there would also be an electronics and hardware centre at the same location.

Chatterjee said the HRD ministry had also given clearance to the proposed IIIT at Kalyani which would be built on PPP basis.

The private partners for the IIIT were Jindal, Rolta India and Coal India, while 50 acre land has been provided by the state.

Chatterjee said that British Telecom (BT) has also taken one lakh square feet of space for locating a high-end back office work at the DLF building.

The government has provided 17 acre to ITC Infotech for it's software development centre near the city.

Asked about the future of the Infosys centre, Chatterjee he would shortly write to the company and also pay a visit to Bangalore soon.