Nasscom positive on West Bengal's cluster approach

KOLKATA: IT body Nasscom on Tuesday applauded West Bengal government's cluster approach to boost start-ups and small companies in the information technology sector.

"If the clsuter approach can work in manufacturing, why can't in happen in IT ? We will look at the architecture on how companies can work together for larger projects," Nasscom Chairman R S Pawar said here today.

Nasscom has decided to focus on start-ups and small IT companies during the year.

Pawar said small IT companies would have enourmous opportunities after the Unique Identification Number project is rolled out.

"Now, the infrastructure is been rolled out. Soon the small players in the IT sector can develop utility applications to play around this infrastructure," he said.

Interacting with Nasscom members, West Bengal Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said the government was mulling steps to boost the small IT companies by creating a cluster among them.

The state is also planning to have IT hubs in every district to help create more jobs.

The land for the IT hubs, which would require less land, would be located in tier II towns of Durgapur, Asansol, Siliguri, Bankura, Barjora, Kalyani and North and South 24 Parganas. Common facilities would be created for the start ups.

"We are also looking to increase the corpus of the venture capital fund and offer it public utility status," he added.