Bengal govt's 'Karmo Bhumi' helps 3,000 IT execs get job offers amid Covid

Some 36,964 IT professionals had registered with Karmo Bhumi, of which 27,034 applications had been processed

At least 3,000 IT professionals who returned to West Bengal amid the Covid-19 pandemic and registered with the government portal “Karmo Bhumi” have been offered jobs, said Amit Mitra, West Bengal’s finance, industry and information technology (IT) minister.

Karmo Bhumi was launched on June 9 by the West Bengal government as a skill registration portal, to collaborate between IT professionals who have come back to the state due to the pandemic and companies.

Mitra said that 36,964 IT professionals had registered with Karmo Bhumi, of which 27,034 applications had been processed and around 3,000 had been selected in matching professions. He was speaking at the ICT East, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

There are about 250,000 employees already in the sector in West Bengal across some 2,800 companies. Mitra said, TCS employed 45,000 and Cognizant around 19,000 professionals.

Mitra on Wednesday urged IT companies to consider taking up space in tier-2 and tier-3 cities as well. “Look at bridging the digital gap and the Bengal government is with you,” he said. West Bengal has around 17 IT parks.

He also said that land was still available at the government’s 200-acre Silicon Valley Hub in Rajarhat where Reliance Jio had taken 40 acres for a data centre and TCS an additional 20 acres; the new TCS hub would house an additional 15,000 professionals, the minister said.

In total, the Silicon Valley project of the government had received about 21 applications. Elaborating on the diverse use of blockchain, Mitra said that it was being used in integrating land records of the government.