Bengal pitches hard for IT investments

The West Bengal government hopes to generate 15 per cent of the country's total IT revenues by the end of this decade.

To accomplish the task, the state has drawn up an ambitious IT Vision, according to West Bengal IT minister Manabendra Mukherjee.

Mukherjee was in Bangalore to attend IT.Com 2004.

"In IT services, we are targeting 12-14 per cent of software exports, 15 per cent of all product development and R&D outsourcing and 10 per cent of domestic software services and product development. Similarly, in the IT-enabled Services (ITeS), we are aiming to achieve 20 per cent of business process outsourcing (BPO) revenues, 18-20 per cent share of call centre business and 30 per cent of animation & knowledge services," Mukherjee said.

As part of its 2010 IT Vision, the Bengal government is developing secondary cities like Kharagpur, Durgapur, Siliguri and Haldia for attracting investments in IT and BPO sectors.

"The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is opening its new tech parks at Durgapur, Siliguri and Haldia in the next 10-12 months. With two STPIs in Kolkata and Kharagpur, the state will have five STPI centres for providing state-of-the-art facilities to technology firms," he said.