State coming up with 'best and attractive' IT incentive policy, says Bratya Basu

Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee-government will soon come up with its new IT incentive policy which will be "one of the best and attractive" in the country.

"The new policy will be unveiled soon by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee," Bratya Basu minister of Information Technology & Electronics, Bratya Basu said addressing ICT East 2017 organised by CII on Thursday.

A senior official in the IT department later said that the state government is analysing the incentives offered by some of the big states like Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat. "We are making a detailed study of the IT incentive policies of all these states and our idea is to formulate a policy that will set a high benchmark of attractiveness," the official said.

The IT department is also inviting suggestions and inputs from industry associations like CII as to what industry wants from us in terms of incentives. "We will certainly try and make sure that the industry's expectations are met and get reflected in the upcoming policy," the official added. The existing IT policy of the state has expired on August 1.

"I understand that a few decision makers of technology companies dealing with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), are addressing the conference over the next two days. I would like urge the companies who do not yet have a presence in the state to consider investing in West Bengal," Basu said.

Principal secretary of the state IT department Debashis Sen who attended the event said that the government is creating an ecosystem to give a boost to start-ups in the state. "Webel Informatics Ltd (WIL) has been directed to make start-up orientation courses compulsory. WIL conducts certificate courses in advanced computer through its centres in various districts," Sen said.

WIL, an undertaking of the state government is the IT & Electronics Education and Training arm of West

Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation (Webel).

The state government is also trying to create clusters by integrating IT under a single roof by providing state-of-the-art infrastructure. "We are coming up with an Analytics City on a 50-acre land in Kalyani. We are building up an IoT cluster at Naihati and ICT Healthcare cluster at Falta in South 24 Parganas," Sen said.

According to Nasscom's estimate, IT industry in Bengal is growing at 16 percent and employment per year is pegged at 8 percent.