Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Wednesday that the setting up of the Kolkata Development Centre of Infosys will attract other IT leaders to invest in Bengal. Miss Banerjee inaugurated the Kolkata Development Centre of Infosys this afternoon. She had laid the foundation stone of the project on 13 August 2018. The construction work was badly hit bacause of the Covid pandemic.
The Centre will employ as many as 4,000 IT professionals. Calling it a historical day for the IT industry in Bengal, Miss Banerjee said there is no dearth of talent in Bengal. “The state produces 45,000 engineers every year and of them there are a sizable number of IT professionals,” Miss Banerjee said, adding that Bengal is an IT friendly state. She assured every cooperation to the IT industry and said every assistance will be given so that the IT professionals can work peacefully at the Infosys Centre.
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The Chief Minister said Bengal Silicon Valley has come up on 200 acres of land in New Town. “Twenty eight IT firms have started functioning. Forty firms are going to start operations soon and out of these 11 firms will set up data centres. The total investment would be around Rs 27,000 crore,” she said. Miss Banerjee said New Town has become an education hub with both state-run and private players setting up universities here. She said the state government has a definite Broadband policy, Data Centre policy, and guidelines for AI.
A well-known US based company will set up a semi conductor facility in Bengal soon, she said. Emphasising why IT firms should invest in Bengal, she said: “There is no dearth of local talents. Bengal is the cultural hub of the country and Kolkata is a cosmopolitan state where people from different religions, culture, language, beliefs stay happily and peacefully. The city had been blessed by the presence of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul and many more.” She added: “Kolkata is the gateway to the North-East and the East Asia countrries.
It is the biggest economic centre in eastern India.” Miss Banerjee said after she came to power, various steps have been taken and these have resulted in elimination of loss of mandays. There is no strike that can affect the industries, she said. She pointed out that there are no power cuts, and added that with the commencement of the biggest coal mine at Deochapachami, the power supply will be even better.
Amit Mitra, Miss Banerjee’s economic adviser, state IT minister Babul Supriyo, Chandrima Bhattacharya and Sujit Basu, the state Finance and Fire and Emergency Services ministers, respectively, were present at the function along with HK Dwivedi, former Chief Secretary and now the vice chairman of the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation and Alapan Bandyopadhyay, former chief secretary and currently adviser to the Chief Minister. Infosys started its journey in 1981. Now it has offices in 56 countries employing 300,000 employees. Forty percent of the workforce are women.
