State may come up with data policy for IT firms

KOLKATA: The state government will soon come up with a data policy with a number of requests pouring in from IT companies in this regard.

State Information Technology (IT) and Industries minister Partha Chatterjee chaired an interactive session with 125 stakeholders from the IT industry in presence of senior officials of the IT department, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) and Webel at Silpa Sadan on Wednesday to fast track investment in the IT sector.

"A number of IT companies have asked us to frame a data policy. Some have asked for an incentive scheme while others have asked for rebates in electricity bills. We have given them a patient hearing. About 39 investors have already taken up space at the Silicon Valley Hub in New Town,"Chatterjee said.

According to Chatterjee, Yotta Ltd. has expressed its desire for setting up a data centre and Ctrls Ltd has asked for 6 acres for their hyper scale data centre at Silicon Valley. Reliance, which had taken 40 acres, already started work for their data centre.

"We will inform Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of the detailed deliberations of Wednesday's meeting and accordingly steps will be taken," he added. Infosys has already put up a boundary wall around 50 acres in Action Area III in New Town and will soon start work. The IT major hopes to finish work within 20 months after they start the building construction. Wipro—that has also taken up 50 acres at the same site—has already received the final demand letter of lease rent from West Bengal Housing & Infrastructure Development Corporation.

Chatterjee said that Microwave Solutions will soon sign a MoU for its project in electronic manufacturing at the Hardware Park in Sonarpur. The IT department has received applications for 88 modules in its IT parks, which has more than 2000 employment generation potential.

Earlier, the state industry department decided to set up infrastructure for setting up of an industrial park on vacant land. The decision was taken after it was found that it takes a long time for the industries to get no objection certificate from various other departments.