Working towards setting up a drone academy in city: Minister

KOLKATA: The state Information Technology and Electronics (IT&E) department is working towards setting up a drone academy in Kolkata.

“We are working very closely with the best minds in the country so that we can come up with a state-of-the-art drone academy. Drone technology is going to a very different level and we are keen to have an institute in Kolkata,” said state IT & E minister Babul Supriyo in the recent Emerging Technology Conference hosted by Webel. The state IT & E department already has an animation academy and the department is working to take it to a different level.

“Under the directions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee we are relentlessly trying to make Kolkata the IT hub of the country and the Bengal Silicon Valley (BSV) at New Town has proved to be a game changer. The entire 200 acres of land is full with 38 companies setting up their office. 16 have already started construction and one by one these companies will start operations generating huge employment. Just outside BSV, IT majors like Infosys have taken 50 acres. TCS 20 acres and Larsen & Toubro 21 acres,” Supriyo added.

The minister said that the existing IT policy is being amended catering to the aspirations of the industry to increase the working hours from 8.5 hours to 9 hours for facilitating billing for international markets. “It will be competitive with all other states in the country, once the amendment comes into effect,” he maintained.

Speaking on the SOPs offered by the state government for IT enabled services (ITeS), the minister said that exemption of property is now 50 per cent, extra 15 per cent FAR (floor area ratio) is being offered for ITeS buildings along with 100 per cent electricity duty waiver and 100 per cent stamp duty waiver under West Bengal Data Centre Policy 2021 .

He appealed for investments in Kolkata and urged the big IT companies to adopt at least one start up.

Sanjay Kumar Das, MD Webel informed that they have adopted a few start ups and have embraced their technology. “We are marketing their technology and we are already experiencing success out of that to great effect,” he added.