Government

In a bid to encourage the IT growth in the state, the West Bengal has taken new initiatives, the foremost being the setting up of India Design Center.

"The center will not only give impetus to the highend semiconductor sector, but also provide entire ecosystem for the VLSI industry in one integrated building," said Debesh Das, minister-in-charge, information technology, Government of West Bengal.

Speaking during the BangaloreIT.in, minister said that West Bengal’s growth as IT destination is gaining momentum with software export revenue touching Rs 3,600 crores.

"Already 500 IT companies have set up their base employing over 55,000 people. The State has registered a growth of 46 percent as against the national average of 32 percent. The State also plans to contribute 15 percent share of India’s IT/ITeS exports by 2010," he added.

Major IT companies, such has Wipro, has bought 22 acres of land, while TCS has bought 40 acres of land, and Infosys is in the process of buying 100 acres of land. Companies like Tech Mahindra and ITC Infotech have also bought lands, he added.

Further, Das said that the State is also addressing the demand for land by developing new places as IT hubs. Salt Lake and New Town Rajghat have already been developed as IT hubs, while 332 acres of land in Jagdishpur is being developed as the third IT hub.

The Government has also set up Webel’s finishing schools at Kolkata and Durgapur to meet the increasing demand for trained quality manpower.

Having tried out Microsoft for a few years, the West Bengal government’s information technology department is now opting for open-source operating systems in new purchases of PCs for its ambitious e-governance programme.

The state recently chose to install Lenovo PCs loaded with Red Hat Linux for an e-governance programme involving 277 panchayats in Burdwan district.

The state’s IT minister, Debesh Das, said he is not looking for a confrontation with Microsoft, but is clearing the purchase of open-source by any department that wants it. Dr Das, a professor of computer science, is himself a votary of open-source and the free software movement.

The Small & Medium Enterprises (SME) sector is one of the fastest growing industrial sectors all over the world.

Many countries of the world have established a SME Development Agency (SMEDA) as the nodal agency to coordinate and oversee all Government interventions in respect of the development of this sector. In India, the agencies working at various levels are-

• SIDO (Under Ministry of Small Scale Industry)
• UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation)
• EU Commission (European Union)
• OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)
• DFID (Department for International Development)

Whereas in the old economy land, labor and capital were the only three generic factors of production, in the new economy, the critical assets are know-how, creativity, intelligence and information. Intelligence embedded in software and technology across a wide range of products has become more important than capital, materials, or labor.