The West Bengal information technology (IT) ministry under Partha Chatterjee is planning to come up with clusters of small and medium enterprises, a novel concept in the IT sector.
Chatterjee made the announcement at an event organised by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), and said that initially the clusters would come up in tier-II cities like Durgapur, Asansol, Siliguri and Darjeeling.
These clusters would be part of the new government strategy to promote IT as a focus industry for the growth of the state. Earlier, chief minister, Mamata Banerjee has said that her government would try and develop IT in every district of West Bengal.
“IT clusters will be developed in every district beginning with Haldia, Asansol, Siliguri and Darjeeling. IT is an industry which does not require land and will be a priority for us given the land crunch in the state,” the minister said.
To boost the stature of SME IT companies, many of which abound in the state and to aid startups, Chatterjee said, the state government was mulling an augmentation in the state’s venture capital fund which currently has a corpus of roughly Rs 10 crore.
“There is a venture capital fund at present which is in bad state. We will, despite the fact that the state’s financials are in a bad state, will try and augment this VC fund to aid startups,” Chatterjee said.
The announcement came a day after, the state government pulled off a coup when Infosys founder and now chairman emeritus Narayan Murthy agreed to be the chief mentor of the state’s dual IT committees.
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His was the second big ticket name to be associated with the sunshine sector’s growth planning in Bengal, after Sam Pitroda gave his assent to becoming the chairman of both committees. Pitroda, incidentally, is also responsible for coming up with the idea of IT clusters.
Also present at the event was Nasscom chairman Rajesh Pawar, who said that he supported the idea of SME clusters in the IT space, given that these would allow new companies the chance to grow.
“I think the idea of IT clusters along the lines of manufacturing clusters is a novel idea, and one which will see some measure of success. Nasscom will study the idea and come up with a presentation for the state government,” he said.