West Bengal targets number three slot in IT destination

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