IT sector in Bengal looking up again
Now that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are gradually wearing off, the IT sector in Bengal is back on track. New projects by almost all the major companies in India are leading to big employment opportunities, many of which are being taken up by residents of the state, who had returned from IT hubs across the country to escape the effects of the pandemic.
The pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Bengal. While it disrupted ongoing projects, the return of employees to their hometowns also spurred companies to set up smaller centres to help those returning.
The information technology (IT) sector has seen a similar trajectory, with the result that now, after a few years, things are again looking up, and in a big way.
The Bengal Silicon Valley Hub in Kolkata is the latest jewel in the crown for the Bengal government. It was established specially to attract data centre set-ups. The 250-acre IT park has seen interest from all the prominent names—Reliance, Hiranandani, TCS, Adani, Nxtra (Bharti Airtel subsidiary), NTT, Larsen & Toubro Infotech (now LTIMindtree). Eight more companies will take up plots soon.
As for IT services companies, Infosys and ITC are coming in a big way.
All these and several more are centring their operations at the tech hubs of Kolkata—Sector V, Salt Lake and Rajarhat.
Infosys, Wipro and TCS are in the process of setting up their second campuses, the first two’s spread across 50 acres each and TCS’s, across 20 acres. TCS already employs 50,000, and will add 15,000 once the second campus gets going fully. Cognizant employs 22,000 and Wipro, 12,000.
Kolkata-based giant ITC’s IT arm, ITC Infotech, is setting up a 17-acre mixed-use development project, ITC Green Centre, at New Town-Rajarhat, whose first phase would be completed by December 2024.
“The Kolkata centre will house over 2,500 employees in the first phase by 2026,” Sudip Singh, MD and CEO, ITC Infotech told Business Standard (BS) recently.
As per this BS report, Amit Mitra, former Bengal finance, IT and industries minister and currently the principal chief advisor to the chief minister, said that the total number of IT professionals in the state is 2.5-3 lakh, working in 900-1,000 companies.
And the demand for setting up units in Bengal is only increasing, the prime reason mentioned at the beginning of this article, aided by the government’s IT and data centre policies, Mitra said.
He also elaborated on the success of the IT parks in the tier-II and tier-III cities of the state: “We have set up 22 IT centres in tier-II and III cities and the response to this model has been significant. These are 50,000 square feet buildings with an average occupancy of 84 per cent. About 7,100 people work out of these centres across 402 companies. Apart from being standalone IT units, the model is acting as a feeder to the IT sector in Kolkata.”
Mitra also explained the IT and ITeS sector’s development would lead to large-scale industrial development of the state in the next three to four years, in the form of “backward and forward linkages with the manufacturing sector, including the vast number of MSMEs, creating more jobs and higher GDP”.
