Bengal targets 25% share in IT exports: Partha Chatterjee

West Bengal, with a three per cent share in IT exports in the country at present, is targetting to increase it to 25 per cent.

"We plan to increase our IT exports to 25 per cent, which stands at 3 per cent," IT Minister Partha Chatterjee told the Assembly today.

He said that the state received investment proposals of Rs 2,250 crore in the IT sector, of which Rs 1,250 crore is by TCS at Rajarhat while Cognizant will put in Rs 300 crore at Bantala.

Chatterjee said that ITC Infotech which is coming to the state, will generate over 15,000 jobs while land for the project has been finalised.

He said that the Centre has approved setting up of the Indian Institute of Information Technology at Kalyani in Nadia district.

Stating that setting up of enterprises in niche sectors like web designing, animation film making and others will be promoted, he said "We are trying to provide the infrastructure for setting up such facilities. "We are establishing IT hubs in every district of the state," he said and took a dig at the previous Left Front government saying that Rajarhat and Sector V of Salt Lake were not the only places in focus.

Replying to a question, he said that there were 500 IT companies employing 1,20,000 in the state.

He said that the state was establishing a number of IT hubs through Webel, a state-run IT infrastructure company, which would help small entrepreneurs.