'Kolkata is a better IT destination than Hyderabad'

A number of pilot projects on e-governance were launched in the last

couple of years. What is the current status?



Most of the projects have already been implemented. The most important among

them would be the comprehensive e-governance portal for increased government to

citizen (G2C) interface. Developed by TCS and Webel, www.wbgov.com allows

citizens to access general information free of cost. Besides accessing

information, you can also download government tender documents and departmental

forms.

Another

feather in our cap is the WBSWAN (West Bengal state-wide WAN), developed by

Webel and Tata Infotech, that currently connects Kolkata to 18 of our 19

district headquarters as well as 9 other important sub-divisional townships.

Over the next one and half years, we will extend it to 340 blocks and 3,600

panchayats. A sustained computer literacy drive across secondary and higher

secondary schools besides madrasas in collaboration with IBM, Wipro and NIIT has

borne fruit in 300 schools, while 200 more will come into the fold this month.

The plan is to spread it across 12,500 schools over a span of three years. In

addition, GIS has been implemented in all municipalities and several Government

Departments have been computerized–Treasury, Commercial Tax, Motor Vehicle,

Land and Land Reforms and Pollution Control Board.

With only 2,500-3,000 qualified engineers graduating every year from the

state, West Bengal faces a serious shortage of quality manpower. What has been

the impact of the new private engineering institutes and polytechnics? Plus,

what are you doing to retain the best of them (like IIT Kharagpur graduates) who

are leaving Kolkata?



Though the numbers have been lower than most South Indian states, in the

last 4-5 years, a large number of engineering colleges, primarily with private

participation have been set up. With the state now having a total of 52

engineering colleges, we expect the number of graduates to increase

substantially.

To encourage the new crop of graduates to stay back, the Government has

formed an Academic Council to develop syllabus tailor-made for the IT/ITeS

industry after interfacing with industry representatives. The 25 member Council

headed by Prof. Shankar Pal of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), also has

members from IIT Kharagpur, BE College Shibpur, Jadavpur University and Calcutta

University, while industry representations are headed by TCS, IBM and Cognizant

among others.

Despite steady activity by the Government and Webel for a decade, and more

intense activity in 2002—03, Kolkata still lags when it comes to players

setting up IT or BPO companies. How will you push Kolkata to be one of the top

choices?



Having missed the IT-services bus for a decade, we are now aggressively

pushing Kolkata as an attractive IT/BPO destination for all major players.

Though we agree that Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi have better brand equity as hot

destinations, Kolkata is a far more attractive destination than cities like

Hyderabad or Pune. Infrastructure will receive a further shot in the arm, after

completion of Bharti’s and Reliance’s NLD backbone connections to Chennai

and Mumbai respectively as well. We will have two more earth stations at

Kharagpur and Durgapur.

In terms of major players, though GE did set up in Jaipur before Kolkata, for

their fifth center even Pramod Bhasin feels it will be a better choice than

Chennai or Kochi. AIG’s second center after Chennai is getting operational,

while Wipro Spectramind will commission their operations by the end of January

2004. IBM and TCS are undergoing major expansion. Kolkata will be IBM’s second

largest center. Even Cognizant and ITC Infotech are adding floor and people. A

Satyam team will be arriving to finalize their Kolkata plans, while Msource and

Digital have also evinced keen interest to start operations.

What are your focus areas in 2004 to step up Kolkata’s technology image?

Are you on track for the state’s target–the No. 3 position for the state and

over 15% of India’s IT revenues by 2010?



We will actively participate in events and roadshows to hardsell the

advantages of the state. We are also banking heavily on the Academic Council to

provide a real thrust not only to Kolkata but to the whole state’s knowledge

economy.

A 40-acre Digital Center is being developed for the IT/ITeS industry at

Nonadanga, while Webel is developing over 100 acres of land at Rajarhat, mainly

for BPO facilities. Both these locations are close to Salt Lake. Two more STPs

in Durgapur and Kharagpur will be operational by December and STPI is now

working on a scheme for Siliguri and Haldia. We are on target to meet our goals

in 2010 and are certain that we will meet them.