The Hindu : Mahajan asks WB to give push to IT

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 03, 2002

Business

Business

Mahajan asks WB to give push to IT

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLKATA DEC. 2. The Union Minister for information and communication, Pramod Mahajan, does not feel Kolkata is much behind Hyderabad as an IT investment destination but promotion and advertising. Reaffirming that West Bengal suffers most from a `negative image', the Minister has advised the State Government to make sufficient provisions for hard selling Kolkata before the global IT community.

Inaugurating Infocom 2002, organised jointly by the National Association of Software Service Companies (Nasscom) and Business World, here on Sunday Mr. Mahajan said contrary to popular perception Hyderabad had a long way to go before it catches up other important IT hubs in the country.

"Today the world IT community believes that Hyderabad is the most happening city in India. But the reality is: Leave alone Bangalore, export turnover of Hyderabad is much lower than even Mumbai, Gurgaon or Noida," he emphasised responding to the reference of `image problem' by the chairman of West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), Somenath Chatterjee.

Stating that he had always wondered why Kerala, Gujarat and West Bengal having done their best in literacy, entreprenuership and intellectual abilities had little existence in the IT map of India, Mr. Mahajan appreciated the West Bengal Government for its recent proactive approach in this regard. He had also promised to improve the quality of telecommunication services in the city.

Earlier, referring his efforts to reach mobile phone services to the North Eastern States, which was not allowed until recently, he said all the seven States would be covered by the cellular network by BSNL within the next Independence Day.

Earlier, speaking on the ocassion the West Bengal IT Minister, Manabendra Mukherjee, said the citizen interface project was taken by TCS-Webel combine. As per the project information kiosks with Government, content would be opened in 200 blocks.

The State government is also considering the IBM Global proposal to extend IT training to 500 more schools and open a faculty training facility in Kolkata. The company has already decided to open an export centre here. The software development centre of Wipro will be set up within next December.

Investments are also coming in BPO operations from companies of the order of Pricewaterhouse Coopers and Tata Consultancy Services.

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