Despite allotting focus industry status to information technology (IT), West Bengal has come up short in being able to provide 40 acres to Cognizant Technologies, the third largest IT service provider in the country.
A senior official in the state IT department told Business Standard that given the fact that land is a scarcity in Kolkata, allotting the parcel of land to Cognizant for a campus would not be possible.
“That land is a problem is well known. Cognizant has asked for 40 acres a few months back, and while we are still in discussion, we will not be able to allocate them the full 40 acres,” the official said.
The decision comes at a time when the state, is grappling with a debt of Rs lakh 2 crore and unemployment numbers close to 7 million. The proposal for the new campus pegged the investment at Rs 600 crore.
When contacted, local Cognizant officials said that they are still hopeful of getting the land allocation.
“We are still in discussion with the state IT department and are hopeful that we will get the land,” said Cognizant vice president and head of Kolkata, Subho Samanta.
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This would have been the second Cognizant campus in Kolkata, after the 10 acre campus at Bantala, which became operational in January this year. Besides the Bantala campus, Cognizant already has significant presence in the city and employs almost 8,000 IT professionals.
Globally, the Nasdaq-listed Cognizant has an pool close to a lakh employees.
Interestingly, soon after she became the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee had said that the best way to deal with the state’s unemployment problem was to create more opportunities in the IT space.
However, the policy of the state government as spelt out by IT minister Partha Chatterjee has been against campuses and favouring allocation of built in space.
“The policy of the state government does not favour big campuses. Also one has to remember that the land they are asking for would anyways be given to them at a discounted rate. Why then should they be allocated a big parcel”, said the IT department official.
The IT industry, however has traditionally favoured campuses over built in office spaces.
“We would like further development in the city to be based out of a campus and not out of some office, especially because it gives the organisation the room to grow, and also to exhibit and attract talent,” Samanta said.
Also, according to norms which govern special economic zone (SEZ), a site gets tax exemptions only when the campus is spread over 25 acres or above.