Karnik unimpressed with Rajarhat IT

Wipro chairman Azim Premji might have hailed Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as the best chief minister in the country, but Nasscom president Kiran Karnik is unimpressed by the much reiterated Rajarhat IT story of West Bengal.

After a long series of praise for Bengal by national and multinational corporates, Karnik on Friday talked of that image of the state, that most bureaucrats and minsters would love to forget.

Strikes, traffic jams and poor infrastructure were some of the biggest challenges faced by the IT industry in the state, he said at the inaugural ceremony of Nasscom's regional office in Kolkata.

"If you are stuck for four to five years only in acquiring land, your potential competitor will surpass you. Many other countries faced similar problems, but they could find a solution, " he said, adding, "I have no solutions for the problems faced by the state. I am leaving it to you."

"You are planning for crisis. Please plan for success," he urged to the state government.

If the IT industry in the city was to grow at the desired pace, the next five would see an employment of at least 5 lakh professionals, but along with this the city would have 5 lakh more cars on the street. The present infrastructure was not capable of handling that much of traffic, he said .

"IT is a 24x7 industry meant for critical support systems needed in banks and hospitals. So we need rapid and more public transport, along with excellent roads for reaching the work place on time. But if the road is stuck by demonstration and protest, how is that possible? One cannot protest at the cost of others. Your job is to maintain law and order, " he said.

Calling for an "indigenous growth", he said, "We need to develop entrepreneurship from within. It is not sufficient to just transplant companies from outside. We need an organic growth from within in Kolkata."

Karnik further said upcoming IT centres like Durgapur and Kharagpur should compete with foreign cities like Quala Lamampur, and not with Indian ones like Jaipur, Coimbatore and Pune.

Even though human resource from the eastern part of the country was respected elsewhere, the state needed to change its curriculum at the university level to suit the needs of the IT industry.

Replying to the questions put up by Karnik, Sidhartha, state IT secretary said, nearly 20 million square feet IT area, providing employment for more than 2 lakh people would soon come up in the state.

"We had strikes, but the IT industry was kept out of the purview, and employees were picked up form their work places. Kolkata has the lowest rate of cyber crime in the country," he said.

Also, the state government planned to develop Durgapur, Siliguri and Kalyani as IT hubs in the first phase of an IT development project. Subsequently, Kharagpur and Haldia would be upgraded as IT hubs. An advanced IT park would be developed at Kharagpur.

State IT minister Debesh Das said last year the IT industry grew at the rate of 32 per cent and this year it was expected that it would grow at the rate of 45 per cent.

Simon Wilson, British deputy high commission in India agreed with Karnik, and said, infrastructure and skill gaps were issues to be addressed with greater urgency is West Bengal.

Nasscom is also setting up a data security council in the next few months to tackle cyber crime.

This would be an independent body, operating under the leadership of Shyamal Ghosh, the former telecom secretary of India.