Kolkata, July 12 -- State Information Technology and Electronics (IT & E) minister Babul Supriyo said on Saturday that out of 42 companies that have taken plots at the Bengal Silicon Valley (BSV) spread over 250 acres in New Town, 19 have already started work in some way or the other. He further informed that IT exports in the state have increased over eight times from Rs 4.5 thousand crore since 2011, when the Mamata Banerjee government took over for the first time, to Rs 35 thousand crore, at present. "Five companies have already completed their building construction or are on the verge of completing it, while 3 have started full-fledged functioning. The companies have already been offered a major incentive for setting up their ventures at BSV. Land was offered at Rs 5 crore per acre against a market value of Rs 25 crore, now appreciated to Rs 40 crore per acre, underlining our serious commitment to IT infrastructure," Supriyo said, addressing an event organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

The minister said that IT major TCS, which already has a campus offering employment to 50,000 people, plans to expand further with its top brass holding a recent meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Infosys has already set up its state-of-the-art office in the state. According to Supriyo, the establishment of GlobalFoundries' R&D operations in Kolkata marks a key milestone in Bengal's semiconductor journey. "We are taking some time in rolling out our Global Capability Centre (GCC) and semi-conductor policy as we want to make it as competitive with other states and also a foolproof one. However, we will roll it out soon, including the amended IT policy with some interesting amendments," said the minister. Considering that an industry requires workforce from the state's Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), which is not limited to the creamy layer of the so-called top engineering institutes, some have come forward for training their interns from the state Technical Education department. "The department is offering training free of cost to make these interns job-ready, the only pre-condition being that the industry must absorb at least 50 per cent of these trained persons," he added.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.