WEST BENGAL: vrooms on the information highway

The Government of West Bengal has identified IT as one of the thrust areas in the state's march towards industrial and economic development. 

Based on the recommendations of the IT Task Force set up in March, 1999, the state declared its IT Policy in January 2000 and set up an independent IT Department in the same year to act as the parent body for overall IT development in the state.

The Department is headed at the ministerial level by the Minister and at the bureaucratic level by the IT Secretary. 

Government of West Bengal: IT Policy, 2000

• Build on the State's creative intellectual wealth including the abundance of skilled and educated manpower and focus on one or two areas of excellence for rapid growth eg, multimedia, Web enabled technologies etc.
• Stimulate the growth of IT enabled services and back office support services.
• Transit from an IT aware Government to an IT enabled Government by adopting e-Governance appropriately.
• Provide easily affordable infrastructure and incentives for progress in the IT sector.
• Set up an integrated State wide delivery backbone for a WAN (Wide Area Network) which can facilitate OFC backed data, voice and video communications, which can support e-Governance, e-Commerce, distance education and provide efficient government - citizen interface.

Address IT education and education in related spheres to: 

· Produce adequate numbers of industry ready IT professionals in the State through public and private institutions 

· Develop IT culture in the State through IT literacy programs 

romote institutions imparting specialized education in IT, Communications and Electronics
Promote setting up of IT Venture Fund companies.Special incentives for IT sector & IT enabled services
.

The Government of West Bengal has announced a comprehensive package of fiscal incentives for the IT industry. For the purpose of determination of types and quantum of incentive available under the Scheme for the approved projects, according to their location, the State has been classified into three groups:

Group A - Kolkata Municipal Corporation 

Group B - Howrah, Hooghly, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas excluding the area under the jurisdiction of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Burdwan, Midnapore and Nadia Districts 

Group C - Murshidabad, Birbhum, Purulia, Bankura, Malda, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling Districts 

Interest subsidy 

50 percent on annual interest liability on loan borrowed subject to ceiling of Rs 100 lakh per year for five years 

60 percent on annual interest liability on loan borrowed subject to a ceiling of Rs. 120 lakh per year for seven years 

60 percent on annual interest liability on loan borrowed subject to a ceiling of Rs. 120 lakh per year for nine years 

Waiver of electricity duty 

Waiver of electricity duty on electricity consumed for production/operation for period of 5 years from date of commercial production/ operation
Employment Generation Subsidy Large & medium scale Reimbursement upto 50% of expenditure on ESI and EPF contribution for first 5 years.

Reimbursement of 75% under same conditions Large & medium scale Reimbursement upto 50% of expenditure on ESI and EPF contribution for first 5 years.

Reimbursement of 75% under same conditions Remission of Stamp Duty and Registration Fee Eligible IT unit (excluding IT enabled services) entitled to full exemption from payment of Stamp Duty and Registration Fee for purpose of registration of documents within the State relating to purchase/acquisition of land and buildings for setting up of approved project
.

The policy also lays down that an eligible IT unit Can remain open for 24 hours working in three shifts,
Will be exempted from taking 'NOC' and 'Consent to Operate' from West Bengal Pollution Control Board.

Full IT Incentive Scheme is given as Annexure 2. It may also be noted here that West Bengal has done away with Consumption Tax, which other states have in the form of
octroi. 

The hub for all IT related activities is the new satellite Salt Lake Township on the eastern part of the metropolis, close to the international airport.

Salt Lake Electronics Complex - SALTLEC - India's first fully integrated Electronics Complex has been set up in Salt Lake by WEBEL, 8 km from the
international airport. 

Two international gateway satellite earth stations -operated by VSNL Advanced telecom network (ISDN) with dedicated exchange Readily available office spaces in the form of Standard Design Factory Building, Software Technology Park II, INFINITY, Bengal Intelligent Centre, as well as individual plots of land National Test Laboratories for Electronics and India's only Indo-German Vocational Training Centre for Electronics Test Engineering Newly set up Indian Institute of Information Technology
(IIIT)

E-governance

The state IT Department has completed the project of WBSWAN (West Bengal State Wide Area Net Work), that provides the backbone networking for e-Governance projects, thereby connecting the State Capital with all district headquarters.

Connectivity will soon be given to eight more industrially and educationally important towns for facilities of distance learning, tele-medicine and other e-Governance projects.

State's Wide Area Network, WBSWAN, one of the best in country Land records computerized in 331 out of 341 blocks in the state
Budgeting process in Finance Department fully automated Kolkata Police expanding its network to cover all police stations in Kolkata
IT Department setting up Government portal through an Application Service Provider for G2C services.

IT Infrastructure

Communications

Efficient telecom infrastructure is the single most important input for the IT industry - be it for IT enabled services or for IT (software) exports. The Government of India has steadily been opening up the telecom sector making it more competitive and thereby ensuring efficiency and lower cost of service provision.

It has recently divested its stake in the monopoly operator, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) - India's telecom gateway to the world- to the TATA Group (one of India's largest private sector business houses) who will act as the strategic partner.

Government of India is also opening up the international telecom carrier business as a whole to competition. This is expected to bring international tariffs down, as has happened in the domestic local and long distance tariffs. 

Telecom facilities within the state of West Bengal are noteworthy. The state boasts of three international satellite earth stations of VSNL supported by two gateway switches for total global reach. These earth stations, two located at Kolkata and one at Halisahar, serve the entire eastern region. In Kolkata, one earth station (F2) is located on top of the SDF building at Salt Lake. This earth station is used to operate IDR/ DCME carriers and has a capacity of radiating a number of 2 mb carriers in different directions. The other is located at Videsh Sanchar Bhawan (VSB) in Ultadanga and has a capacity of 240 PSTN CCTS. Halisahar is the major earth station facility for the entire eastern region and is equipped with a modified Std A earth station (C & Ku Band). Located very close to Kolkata, it has a capacity of 1350 PSTN CCTS plus 2 compressed Digital TV channels.

The total capacity of the International Gateway Switch in Kolkata is 11000 circuits of which 4500 circuits are now in use.

The Software Technology Park of India (STPI) is putting up another earth station of capacity 155 mbps at
Kharagpur.

In addition to this, a number of private bandwidth providers arrange for greater Internet bandwidth for knowledge-based industries that set up facilities in the state. V-SAT infrastructure of National Informatics Centre provides additional bandwidth for information transfer. BSNL has provided connectivity to 326 out of 341 blocks through 2 mbps bandwidth, either through Optic Fiber Cable (OFC) or microwave. This has strengthened the city's international communications. BSNL has also earmarked an investment of Rs. 250 crore to connect major Indian cities (starting with the metros) using the Dense Wave Division Multiplex (DWDM) technology to increase the bandwidth manifold to accommodate new applications and subscribers. The DWDM, based on Optical Fiber technology would increase the current bandwidth of 2.5 GB by about 50-60 times.

Calcutta Telephones has increased its exchange capacity by 2.5 times in the last three years. The equipped capacity has grown to 13,32,841 and total working connection to 12, 35, 626. The network is based on a strong core comprising of 31 digital exchanges connected by highly reliable and high capacity STM-16 OFC rings.

West Bengal telecom has increased its exchange capacity by 2.5 times in last three years. The equipped capacity has grown to 11,14,878 as in February 2002 and total working connection touched 8,75,416. The Network contains 13 high capacity Digital Trunk Automatic Exchanges (TAX) with broadband reliable optical fiber links.

OFC bandwidth will shortly become available from Reliance Infocom Private Limited, which is setting up a Rs 800 crore optical fiber cable network within the state. The project involves laying nearly 4000 km of optical fiber across West Bengal that will link Kolkata with all other districts. The company is laying 1560 km of optical fiber cables in Kolkata itself by creating a 450-km optic fiber main access ring linking client sites through some 640-km of last mile connectivity. This is expected to be completed by the end of 2002. Bharti has also evinced interest for connecting Kolkata to Chennai through OFC linkages.

IT destination

In the last three-four years, the industry has shown considerable progress in the state. Exports have risen significantly at over 60% per annum from units registered with the
STP.

Total exports from the 63 odd Software Technology Park (STP) units alone in Kolkata increased from USD 74.84 million (Rs. 3592 million) in 2000-01 to USD 96.55 million (Rs. 4634 million) during the first 10 months of year 2001-02 (figures up to January 2002). This figure does not include exports from units located outside the STPs or the substantial sales to the domestic market. Total exports from the state in 2000-01 for all units both registered with STP and otherwise, were estimated at Rs. 9350 million and are anticipated to reach Rs. 12250 million in 2001-02.

At present, around 100 companies are active in the software area in the state and are mainly Kolkata centric. Salt Lake - the planned satellite township of Kolkata - has been positioned as the 'nerve centre' for the IT industry. It has become the 'preferred destination' of global corporations in IT and electronics. Major national and international houses have set up IT units at Salt Lake Electronics Complex. Prime examples of Indian companies/ groups that have a base in the state are Tata Consultancy Services, Usha Comm India Ltd, ITC Infotech, NIIT, Caltiger.com and Web Development Company. Others like Wipro are planning to set up base in the state.

Not only are existing companies expanding their base in Kolkata, but also quite a few foreign majors are setting up their base in Kolkata. Prime examples of foreign majors are PricewaterhouseCoopers, Cognizant Technology Solutions, The Chatterjee Group, United Airlines (through SkyTech Solutions), Computer Associates, Sema, and Astral Systems

ITES

After software services, back-office business is India's most promising export. The availability of thousands of well trained professionals who can speak English fluently and also switch accents as required, a favourable time zone it falls under and falling telecom tariffs has established India as a preferred destination for establishing offshore call Centres. What is more inspiring is that call Centre jobs in India are perceived as a decent career option, unlike in the US and Europe. Medical transcription is another fast growing industry. Units catering to Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) have now started to come up. There is a huge addressable market available in this growing sector.

Kolkata today has 12 units engaged in IT-enabled services under STP. The notable call Centre units are BNK e Solutions, Bayview Technology Systems, Vishnu Solutions and Web Development Company. In medical transcription, the city has Optimal Computing, Stesalit Infotech, Krypton Infotech and Last Peak Solutions.

BNK e Solutions Pvt Ltd.

Located at INFINITY in Saltlec, BNK e Solutions is one of the better call-Centres in the city. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, this company services clients mainly based in the US, with plans of expanding to Europe. With a capacity of 340, the company currently employs 90 persons, and hopes to reach full capacity within six months. The company has a three-phase expansion plan, to finally have 600 seats operating in three shifts on a 24x7 basis. The company has applied to WEBEL for a one-acre land to set up its independent unit.

Vishnu Solutions Private Limited

Set up in collaboration with HCL Infosystems Ltd., this international call center is located in the heart of the city at Camac Street. The unit occupies 9000 sq ft and employs around 75 persons. The company reports a turnover of Rs. 80 million and caters to various companies in the US.

Last Peak Solutions Pvt Ltd

Located at INFINITY in Saltlec, BNK e Solutions is one of the better call-Centres in the city. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, this company services clients mainly based in the US, with plans of expanding to Europe. With a capacity of 340, the company currently employs 90 persons, and hopes to reach full capacity within six months. The company has a three-phase expansion plan, to finally have 600 seats operating in three shifts on a 24x7 basis. The company has applied to WEBEL for a one-acre land to set up its independent unit

Initiatives in IT education

The state has been aggressively promoting the setting up of new private engineering colleges, especially those offering IT education. On its part, the state has set up
IIIT, Kolkata. 

36 out of 39 Engineering and Technology Colleges including University Departments offer IT education in the state leading to BE/ B. Tech degree. This includes 12 recently set up colleges by the private sector
WEBEL is running a Distance Learning Program with IBM. A network connects education Centres across the state to a main server at Webel for remote online learning. Using the advanced Lotus Learning Space technology, professional courses are provided through the network and constant monitoring is done. Upgrading of courses is done as per international standards with the technical help of Lotus

The West Bengal University of Technology has been set up to which colleges teaching IT and IT related subjects would be affiliated.

The Netaji Subhas Open University in collaboration with the Regional Computer Centre, Kolkata has set up a school of Digital Learning offering modular courses in Web Application and Information Technology and Multimedia Content Development
IT Department is working with Jadavpur University to introduce distance education in three engineering colleges

IT major Microsoft Corporation has signed a MoU for starting a Training Institute for IT teachers in various state government colleges
CISCO Networking Academies have been set up in the State The Institute of Computer Engineers is already running DOEACC 'O' and 'A' level courses in sixty-nine colleges
IBM, Oracle and Microsoft are keen on introducing advanced Computer Education in the Universities and Engineering Colleges
Computer education in general degree colleges will be introduced soon IT Department is involving Microsoft and Compaq for setting up a lab for a Faculty Development Centre for IT teachers affiliated to West Bengal University of Technology
The Department of Technical Education is running 10 Polytechnics in the state for courses on Information Technology and Computer Science and Technology
IT Department has provided hardware and software to 100 schools identified by the Department of School Education with as part of the School IT Education Programme. Computer education from class VII to class XII has already been introduced in these
government-aided schools through NIIT. Leading IT Companies will be involved for introduction of computer education in more schools in phases
With grant from the Eleventh Finance Commission, School Education Department is setting up District Computer Centers in each district
WBSWAN - West Bengal State Wide Area Network.



E - Governance

he state's information highway WBSWAN is the backbone network for data, voice and video communication throughout the state of West Bengal and this Government Intranet, through which e-Governance activities of the Government of West Bengal will be undertaken, will be based on IP (Internet Protocol) technology.Salient features of
WBSWAN:

WBSWAN network will provide connectivity of Data, Voice & Video Communication facilities from State Switching Centre at Kolkata up to all District Headquarters as well as some important cities on 2 Mbps (E-1 link) leased line of BSNL.

All block headquarters will be connected with their District Headquarters on 64 Kbps Leased line upgradable to 2 Mbps bandwidth.

Selected Panchayats will be connected with their Block Headquarters during subsequent phases of expansion of
WBSWAN.

State Capital as well as each district headquarter will have video conferencing, multi-conferencing facility through Multipoint Conferencing Unit (MCU) at
Kolkata.

Provision for horizontal expansion for connectivity at all levels.

WBSWAN services & applications:

This Intranet will provide seamless connectivity among Government departments / directorates as well as among the various offices of each department / directorate all over West Bengal.

Government Application Service Provider (ASP) project will be based on this network.

Improve the Government-Citizen and Government-Industry interface as well as efficient Intra-Government information flow resulting in effective, efficient and transparent administration.