Bengal's first IIIT to start classes from July

Classes in West Bengal's first Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at Kalyani will begin from July this year, IT minister Amit Mitra told the Assembly today.
While the campus was yet to be ready, classes would be held in the premises of an engineering college, while IIEST (formerly BESU) would be the mentor academy, Mitra said.
The institute would come up on public-private partnership (PPP) basis with the Centre holding 50 per cent equity, state 35 per cent and the rest 15 per cent divided among Coal India, Rolta Foundation and JSW Steel, he said.
The state had provided 50 acre while the cost involved for setting up the institute was Rs 128 crore, Mitra said.

The institute would offer BTech and MTech courses, he said.
To another query, he said that the state government was setting up several IT parks and hardware parks in various areas.
Besides, companies like TCS, Tech Mahindra, Accenture and Cognisant were expanding facilities in the state, while ITC Infotech had been allotted 17 acres at Rajarhat, he said.
Software exports from West Bengal during 2012-13 stood at Rs 11,200 crore, he added.