Bengal offers space to Nasscom for incubation centre

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government today offered space to Nasscom, the apex body for the IT and ITeS industry, for setting up an incubation centre for entrepreneurs.

"We are ready to offer Nasscom a 10,000 sq ft space in the Webel office at Salt Lake for it to start an incubation centre in the city," IT Minister Amit Mitra said at the Nasscom Product Conclave here.

He said that besides Nasscom, Microsoft was also willing to start a centre of excellence and an innovation centre in the metropolis.

This would be Nasscom's second incubation centre in the country after Bangalore.

The minister said that the government would make all efforts to protect the intellectual property of the products developed at the centre.

"I also request Nasscom to bring in angel investors and venture capitalists to financially help the entrepreneurs," Mitra said.

Talking about IT and ITeS industry in West Bengal, he said that several big names were operating out of the state, besides numerous small and medium firms.

"The small and medium IT companies are equally valuable, if not more," Mitra said.

Later, Nasscom president R Chandrasekhar told reporters that Nasscom would try to bring in angel investors and VC funds to make the eco-system more vibrant.

According to Nasscom's projections, substantial portion of revenues would come from product start-ups by 2020.

To support the cause, he said there was also a need that certain funding would have to come from the government.