INDIASOFT 2009

Venue

INDIASOFT 2009 will be organised at Yuba Bharati Krirangam, Salt Lake Stadium, (Adjacent Hotel Hyatt Regency) Kolkata, West Bengal, India.

WEST BENGAL --- The Cyber City of the East and the City of Joy!

Today West Bengal is fast emerging as India's most preferred destination for ICT sector. West Bengal is a new home to major ICT services players both at national and international level.

Rich Talent Pool, low operational cost, excellent connectivity etc. have made the ambience of West Bengal conducive to become the ultimate IT destination in India. The State is now heading to rank among the top 3 IT states in India by 2010. With a pro-active State Government, West Bengal is today on the move and vision’s to be the next silicon city.

ADVANTAGE BENGAL

Though being a late starter Kolkata has emerged among the fastest growing ICT destination since the turn of the century. In the year 2007 – 2008 the state grew @ 46% when the national average growth during the period was at 32%. There are strong reasons for this phenomenal growth. To begin with the State has attracted substantial investment since the liberalization of the economy standing second only to Gujarat. The growth in State Domestic Product at 5.66% and in Per Capita Income at 7.06% has been the highest in the country during the period 1999 – 2000 to 2003 – 2004. In terms of security and stability Kolkata has seen the lowest incident of violent crime among the major cities in the country. Besides, the commitment of the State Government to economic reforms and the economic development achieved by the State has totally changed the perception of Kolkata in the eyes of potential investors. Thus there are over 50 companies active in Kolkata employing around 75,000 professionals with the exports pushing past Rs. 5,000/- crores, almost all the big IT companies have their presence in Kolkata including TCS, Wipro, IBM, HSBC, Cognizant, Genpact, Cap Gemini, Deloitte& Touche, Atos Origin, PwC, Skytech.

More specific to the sector West Bengal is very strong in the key enablers for growth in the IT industry namely, talent, cost of operation, investor support, infrastructure and policy. West Bengal has often been called the State of Mind boasting of some of the best institutions in the country : IIT-Kharagpur, IIM-Calcutta, Calcutta University, Jadavpur University, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, Bengal Engineering and Science University and prestigious colleges like Presidency and St. Xaviers. Besides there are 16 Government Universities, 67 Engineering Colleges and 450 Degree Colleges with 10 Central Research Institutions located in the State. Indian Institute of Science, which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister, has started functioning, while Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Communication and Information Technology is in the pipeline. About 20,000 students are enrolled in the Engineering colleges. In terms of excellent English Language skills about 35,000 students pass out from English medium schools every year with the State having the largest number of ICSE schools. If we take into account the index of internet penetration in India as per the home PC installation, we find that Kolkata is at a staggering 100% followed by Bangalore 88%, Chennai 69%, Mumbai 58% and Delhi at 48%. This is a very clear indication of the edge Kolkata has in the ICT sector.

Kolkata’s strength also lies in the domain of Banking, Finance and Insurance with 1,20,000 students enrolling in Commerce. Country’s biggest life insurer LIC run their largest operation in West Bengal. One of the leading non-life insurer, NIC, also has its headquarters in Kolkata. Being the traditional manufacturing and mining hub in India, Kokata’s strength in Engineering Design is second to none. In the creative sphere the renowned Art Colleges and Shantiniketan make Kolkata an ideal base for visual art. It is little wonder that the Toonz Animation Academy had chosen Kolkata as their base for training professionals in this fast developing field and now DQ Entertainment the biggest animation company in the country is jointly running the Academy with Webel.

Cost competitiveness is the other major attraction of Kolkata as it offers the lowest costs compared to other cities. In the consumer price index for urban non-manual workers, Kolkata stands lowest at 421 with Hyderabad and Bangalore topping with 493 and 482 respectively. In terms of the salaries for fresh graduates, Kolkata is again at the lowest with Rs. 66,000/- compared to Mumbai at the highest with Rs. 110,000/- followed by Delhi at Rs. 90,000/-. According to NASSCOM former President Mr. Kiran Karnik, Kolkata’s strength is low attrition rate which is embedded in the culture – people won’t leave jobs for a Rs. 1000/- increment. All the companies operating out of Kolkata appreciate this specific characteristic. Consequently the attrition rate in IT sector in Kolkata is only 5 – 10% as compared to Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore where rates are 30 – 40%. In the power situation West Bengal is sitting pretty as number one again with the lowest tariff rates at Rs. 3.5/- per unit compared to 4.7/- per unit in Chennai and 4.3/- per unit in Gurgaon. No wonder NASSCOM and Gartner have ranked the State No. 1 in power availability and quality. Thus taking into account both the non-labour and labour related costs West Bengal tops in cost competitiveness with a clear 12% advantage. The low costs, good infrastructure and excellent human resource are now encouraging emergence of new satellite IT destinations in the State at Siliguri, Durgapur, Kharagpur and Haldia.

Taking into account the projects which have already been completed or are nearing completion there is going to be an addition of approximately 20 million sq ft. of built up space over the next 2 years for the industry to service their clients spread over the world. More bandwidth and redundancy from BSNL and alternative national long distance loop from Reliance will further enhance the connectivity. The five earth stations (BSNL, STPI) are among the best in the country. In terms of infrastructure, Kolkata offers best in class local transport options. We have a fully functional underground train network. The New Town, Rajarhat and Salt Lake will be connected with metro by 2010. There is a new road to Alipore from the IT hub Salt Lake. The commuting time from the IT hub to the Airport has been reduced to 20mins and the Airport has also been connected with the Circular Rail. The road network in the State has been strengthened and several new flyovers in Kolkata have greatly eased the traffic. Besides, a number of International Airlines have started operating out of Kolkata. The city also offers excellent social infrastructure, the best of clubs, oldest golf course and a rich cultural heritage.

West Bengal is probably the only State in the world that can boast of the highest mountain range, the Himalayas, the most fertile Gangetic plains, the mangrove forests of Sunderbans and the Sea. The rich bio-diversity and wild life are the other attractions of Bengal. Kolkata is also the happening place for GenX, with plenty of large shopping malls, multiplexes, bowling allies, billiard pools, cafes, night clubs, beer pubs, discotheque and many sporting facilities. In terms of policy issues relating to IT industry the most important has been the granting of public utility status and other exemptious in the labour laws and Shop and Establishment rules to facilitate the 24 x7 working of the BPO industry.

According to Price Waterhouse Cooper in the final score sheet of the important IT centers in the country, Kolkata scores the highest taking into account knowledge capital, operating costs, power and telecom, transport and housing, political stability, law and order, infrastructure health and work culture. NeoIT, a US based consultancy organization has declared in their survey that Kolkata will emerge as the third most attractive BPO destination in the world after Warsaw and Hyderabad by 2010. This rapid growth and the favourable conditions augur well for the future but we have to ensure that with the availability of increased space the required manpower is also made available for the industry. Even more important is to make sure that the graduates and the employees available for the industry are equipped with the required skills to increase their employability. The State government is serious about augmenting the skills of our graduates and engineers by organizing tailor made domain specific training and orientation courses. The academic institutions will also be asked to explore the possibility of arranging evening classes, summer courses and bridge courses to instill the desired skills in the candidates to make them fully employable for the IT industry on their graduation. It is going to be an enourmous task but the State Government is not going to leave any stone unturned to achieve the same. The State Government has already taken initiative in this regard by opening Finishing Schools at Taratolla and Durgapur for training the engineering graduates and make then industry ready. These Finishing Schools also function as training cum placement centers where companies can come and pick up candidates and also get their own candidates trained as per their requirements.

The New Town Rajarhat and the existing IT hub at Salt Lake, Sector – V have already changed the skyline of Kolkata as well as its perception. Almost all the important names in the IT sector are already present in Kolkata and the excellent facilities that have come up, providing state of art world class infrastructure for the IT and ITeS companies have become a big attraction. Besides Rajarhat and Salt Lake 21 Special Economic Zones (SEZ) for IT industry have already been approved by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India. While the Wipro SEZ in Salt Lake and Unitech in Rajarhat have already started functioning Bantala SEZ is about to take off. Besides there are a several more applications in the pipeline for IT SEZs in the State. So far as IT parks are concerned as already mentioned the State Government is striving hard to take the IT industry to other cities in Bengal for more inclusive growth.

In Durgapur an IT Park (25 acres) on PPP model has been awarded to Shapoorji & Pallonji. Webel has also started a Finishing School in Durgapur and has plans to develop its own incubation center this year. Important companies like Pinnacle, Assurgent, HTMT etc. are already active in Durgapur employing approximately 3000 to 4000 people in all. At Kalyani a plot of 100 acres has been identified for development of an IT SEZ by Webel on behalf of IT Department. The land transfer formalities are being observed and the application for the SEZ will be submitted shortly. Efforts are also being made to get one IIIT at Kalyani under the scheme of HRD Ministry, Government of India. It is also expected that Reliance will be establishing its Institute of Information and Communication Technology at Kalyani. Haldia will be taken up subsequently where some private initiative is already afoot for the development of an IT Park.

In Siliguri, an IT Park (25 acres) on PPP model has already been awarded to Infinity Infotech. Besides, Webel itself is developing an Incubation Centre cum IT Park at Siliguri. On the private side Madgul Parks has also laid the foundation stone for its IT Park at Siliguri. Companies like Exploretech and Acclaris are already active in Siliguri with more enquiries being received about the destination. Among the major companies Videocon is also planning a major SEZ at Siliguri. The State Government is also planning to open a Finishing School at Siliguri.

The IIT- Kharagpur has already developed a concept paper for a Biotechnology Park at Kharagpur. In view of the great synergy between IT and Biotechnology the State Government is going in for a very ambitious project at Kharagpur for developing an integrated Advanced IT and Biotechnology Park with some common facilities and state of art social infrastructure to attract the potential companies. The emphasis will now be on moving up the value chain and go for more complex knowledge based products and processes compared to the routine and repetitive Call Centre kind of activities. At the advanced IT Park at Kharagpur emphasis will be on R&D and Chip manufacturing / designing along with the high end knowledge based processing. Thus we look forward to the continued fast track growth of IT industry in a resurgent Bengal committed to regain its predominant position among the States of India.

The IT Department through Webel is currently developing two mega projects for the IT sector. Both these projects are in the vicinity of New Town Rajarhat. Under the integrated IT Township Projects called “Kolkata Links” it is proposed to develop an IT Township over approximately 1600 acres of land on a PPP model. Out of this area 50% of the land will be kept exclusively for IT companies and on the remaining land social and institutional infrastructure will be developed including housing, commercial complex, schools, hospitals etc. On the other project in Jagdishpur mouza a similar IT hub will be developed where 160 acres of land will be allotted to IT companies and on the remaining area commercial and housing facilities will come up as support services. Both these projects will have State-of-the-Art infrastructure and facility. These two projects will totally change the face of the IT industry in West Bengal and will certainly make it one of the most attractive destination in the country. Besides, over 20 million sq. ft of office space is already under construction exclusively for IT / ITeS industry based on sanctioned projects and will be delivered over the next two years. This itself will create over 2,00,000 jobs which is almost 3 times the professional employment in IT sector in Kolkata today.

ESC will work out City Tour Package through its official travel agents to assist our Guests for City Tour etc. For detailed information on the City and Places of Tourist Attraction please visit http://www.wbtourism.com