Bengal to take IT roadshow to CeBIT

The West Bengal IT department, was looking at crossing the geographical boundaries with its roadshows and would meet the top brass of SAP to persuade the company to set up a manufacturing facility in the state.

SAP was just one of the companies that the IT department officials would be visiting. G D Gautama, state IT secretary said, we would also meet the top brass of Siemens for further expansion plans in Kolkata.

The state IT minister, Manabendra Mukherjee was leading a 22-member delegation to Germany and the UK.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), SkyTECH Solutions, Usha Comm representatives were part of the delegation, apart from Gautama and Webel managing director S K Mitra. The delegation would also see representatives from the real estate sector in the city.

The delegation would spend five days at Hannover, Germany for the CeBIT fair and three days in the UK. Webel was participating in CeBIT.

Gautama said, that IT industry was a perception driven industry and it was time to showcase the state to the international market. The move to take the roadshows overseas was on the advice of Kiran Karnik, Nasscom president as also was a long standing demand of the IT companies, here.

Meetings would also be held with investment bankers, venture capitalists, industry analysts,chambers of commerce and IT associations.

The IT department had so far focused on the domestic market and held 46 roadshows in the last 20 months.

Gautama said, "We will showcase West Bengal and the fast developments in the IT sector."

The total revenues generated by the IT and ITES sector in 2003-04 were to the tune of Rs 1,680 crore and figure was expected to increase manifold by the end of the current financial year.The target set by the IT department was 15-20 per cent of India's IT revenues by 2010.

According to projections, four million square feet of space would be dedicated for the IT and ITES sector by March 2006 and over the next six months, 40-50,000 people would be working in the sector, from the current level of 24,000.