Bengal plans to tone up IT sector

West Bengal aims to increase its share of revenues from IT, ITeS and Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) segment.

According to the State IT, Finance, Commerce & Industry Minister, Amit Mitra, the aim is to project West Bengal amongst the top three destinations by 2020 in terms of IT, ITeS and ESDM.

Currently, the State’s share in the IT and ITeS’ revenue accounts for just four per cent.

“We want to more than double our revenue contributions to 10 per cent, from the current four per cent,” Mitra told reporters on Thursday during the ESDM conclave organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

Focus will be on developing the State in the semi-conductor design, telecom equipment and IT, systems & hardware segments. The State Government, he said, will give subsidy to hardware manufacturers along with registration and stamp duty subsidies, employment generation substitution, help in applying for patents and also providing angel and venture funding.

“We have taken all the necessary steps to promote IT, ITES and Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM),” he added.

The State is also setting up 13 IT parks in tier-II and tier-III locations like Durgapur, Siliguri. Haldia, Malda, Kalyani, among others. Eight of the IT parks are under construction, while work on five others will begin soon.

This apart, the State is also planning to set up eight hardware clusters. While six of these – one each in Kolkata, Howrah, Durgapur, Kharagpur, Haldia and Siliguri – will be Brownfield ones; the other two – one each in Naihati and Falta – are Greenfield projects.