Processing .....please wait.. 
The article has been forwarded.... 
News >> Technology >>
West Bengal woos IT investment from UK
By agencies
|
Thursday, 17 March 2005, 20:30 IST
KOLKATA:West Bengal is wooing British IT companies to set up operations in the state, offering them required facilities on a priority basis.
Kolkata is fast emerging as the knowledge capital of India and the State government has declared IT as a public utility service, Manabendra Mukherjee, Minister of Information Technology said in London while heading a 15-member delegation.
Though a late starter in attracting IT investments, he said the State currently had five percent of the IT market in the country and the Government planned to increase it to 15 to 20 percent in the next three to four years.
At present 210 companies including IBM, HSBC, WIPRO, NIIT, employing totally 2,400 IT professionals are operating in Salt Lake in Kolkata, G D Gautama, Principal Secretary, to IT department, said.
Another 200 acres of land in Raja Ghar near the Kolkata airport was being developed as the new IT hub, he said.
An estimated 5 million sq. ft would be further added to accommodate IT companies in the next 18 to 24 months. IT companies in the State were expanding at the rate of 70 per cent per annum, as against the national average of 36 per cent, he said.