West Bengal is striving to place itself among the top three IT
destinations in India by 2010 with the policy of "IT for the people".
Manab Mukherjee, Minister of Department of Information
Technology, Government of West Bengal stated that despite low level of revenue
share in IT, the government is confident enough to attain its position within
the next five years.
"We can make out from the present revenue share of our
state which is 5.2 percent compared to around three percent five years ago. The
government is giving special focus on IT development in the state which has
encouraged a host of companies to set up their offices here, which is a positive
sign," Mukherjee said.
Speaking about the introduction of low cost PC in West
Bengal, Mukherjee said that West Bengal is the first state to introduce it. He
said that under the IT literacy program in educational institutions they have
completed training 1,500 schools till date.
In the next phase, which will start within sometime, they
would target 3,000 educational institutions. "Under this program we aim to
cover 9,500 Secondary, Higher Secondary and Madrasa schools. West Bengal will
gain complete computer literacy within three years," he added.
Referring to the growth of the state, GD
Gautama, Principal
Secretary Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal said
that the state has bagged the best name in the whole country for providing the
best education to the students. He said that among the 500 best rated
educational institutions in the world, of which three are from India. Among the
three, two are from Bengal -- Calcutta University and Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.
"We have been rated number one for banking, arts, power,
connectivity and transportation which will help us to achieve our target to be
the best IT destination state in the country. We have proposed to set up two
technology parks at Haldia and Siliguri which will prove to be a catalyst for
its growth," Gautama said. Two international airlines-- Lufthansa and Air
France will start their operations from Kolkata.
CyberMedia News
New Delhi, Nov 22