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SILIGURI
Digital Gateway to South Asia
TO extend further what Nasscom president Kiran Karnik
said the other day, one may feel spurred to say West Bengal is re-inventing.
“Kolkata is re-inventing itself ….a new Kolkata is emerging”, he said
at a conference of IT leaders some time back. While re-inventing itself,
country’s “Look East” policy has literally charged up the Left Front government
under the leadership of a forward looking, modern Chief Minister Buddhadev
Bhattacharyay, to invent the latent potential of Siliguri as the IT gateway
to South Asia and the entire north-eastern region of the country at the
micro level. The historic decision of the Indian and Chinese governments
to open the Nathula Pass has brightened further the prospect and scope
of Siliguri as the central IT hub for the South Asian region.
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The
Nasscom President who is “great enthusiastic” about Siliguri told
indiaonestop.com: “With the opening of Nathula Pass as the China
trade develops, that would be the staging point for Siliguri because
that is going to be the central hub where things would be coming
and then distributed all across the country. Siliguri itself will
develop as a city and town. Otherwise, very nice weather and ambience
is very good. It will attract outsiders if you make it a nice place
to live in. Even as a tourist destination it is the staging point
to travel into Sikkim, Bhutan, Darjeeling, for that matter the entire
north east”. |
“We are against any digitally divided world - both at mirco and macro levels. Whatever we are doing or planning, we always think in both national and international perspective. The central government’s Look East policy has only strengthened our concept and initiatives to develop Siliguri as the IT gateway to entire South Asia. Whether the BIMSTEC region or the north-east region of the country, all are going to benefit immensely”, asserts G. D. Gautama, Special Secretary to the state IT department. When he says “it’s a huge task, a massive responsibility and it’s not something that can be developed over night”, Gautama is only echoing what the Nasscom president said: “About Siliguri I am |
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great enthusiastic. I am not going to say that Siliguri is going to get business next year. But looking ahead for next two or three years now. For two or three reasons the prospects of Siliguri is very bright. That is a great place to tap into all the talent exist in the north east region today. To expect an IT company to go to Aizol or Kohima is not realistic, frankly speaking. There is a talent pool in that region. They speak good English, they are hard working, industrious. “With the opening of Nathula Pass as the China trade develops, that would be the staging point for Siliguri because that is going to be the central hub where things would be coming and then distributed all across the country. Siliguri itself will develop as a city and town. |
Otherwise, very nice weather and ambience is very good. It will attract outsiders if you make it a nice place to live in. Even as a tourist destination it is the staging point to travel into Sikkim, Bhutan, Darjeeling, for that matter the entire north east.
“If the West Bengal government can somehow combine all these and make the kind of hub for the north east then automatically IT industry will also come and it will be self reinforcing because in IT industry you get more people, because more people come, a city develops. You will be able to attract more IT people. The kind of phenomenon we have seen in Bangalore, it could begin the take-off in Siliguri in three four years from now”, Karnik feels.
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In
Siliguri the state government is doing just that only- combing trade,
tourism and IT, Gautama says. The place has developed as one of
the busy trading hubs in the country. With the opening up of Nathula
Pass paving the way nor only with China but in the entire South
Asia, Siliguri will witness massive growth in trade. This in other
way means more and more investible funds available with the people
there. The Siliguri IT project may provide them the opportunity
to invest in a profitable sector. The state government has already
initiated steps to develop required infrastructure. In fact the
Siliguri-Jalpaiguri Development Authority has been asked to work
out a detailed plan on infrastructure. |
Of the four new STPs, two, namely, Durgapur and Khargpur, have already been commissioned. Siliguri and Haldia are scheduled to come up by end of this year. The existing IT park promoted by STP is in Salt Lake and the new IT hub is coming up in Rajarhat in Kolkata. DLF Group is setting up the IT Park encompassing an area of 1.3 million sq ft with an investment of Rs 280 crore. Kolkata will continue to be the prime IT business destination in the state, but in order to ease the load on the existing infrastructure it is being spread . Durgapur, Kharagpur, Siliguri and Haldia have been identified as cities that can emerge as preferred destinations for software development and outsourcing companies. Once required infrastructure is developed these small towns could attract a large number of Indian and international IT firms.
Biggies like IBM, TCS, PWC and Cognizant are among many others who are already there and they are multiplying their capacity many fold. Wipro, in addition to the present 12-acre facility, has been allotted an additional 4.3-acre of land in Salt Lake. Wipro has requested for additional 50 acres of land at new township coming up at Rajarhat, Gautama said. GE Capital has already started its operation. Satyam’s next development center to be located in Kolkata. HSBC Electronics Data Processing Pvt Ltd has been allotted 3.5 acre land for its 1,80,000 sq ft facility and TCS has asked for another 50 acre of land for further multiplying its capacity. According to Gautama.
Till last year the state government has organised 56 roadshows in Hyderbad, Noida and Gurgaon among others to attract investment in the sector in the state. We are targeting 15 per cent of IT services and 20 per cent of IT Enabled Services (ITES) revenue by 2010 from 5.1 per cent at present, he said. The sector has the potential of employing 4.15 lakh by 2010, he said.
The IT department estimates that at least 13,000 new jobs would be created in the ITeS and BPO segments in the state this year. The state now has 47 ITeS firms, employing about 4,500 people. Although 24,000 professionals are currently employed in the IT sector the bulk of them are engaged in software development.
The estimate of around 13,000 new ITeS jobs in 2005 is just a conservative estimate. The actual figure could be much higher, because a number of big companies like HSBC Electronic Data Processing, ITC Infotech and Reliance Infocomm's are scheduled to start their call centre operations this year, Gautama said. The state is also banking on Wipro Spectramind who rated second by Nasscom among third-party call centre and BPO players in 2003-04. But top notchers in the state IT department like Gautama are spurred by the fact that comparatively smaller ITeS companies are showing very keen interest to set up facilities in Kolkata. Many of them of are engaged in niche areas.
Overviews
February 8, 2005