5 more IT investors in bag, claims WB

The West Bengal government has managed to persuade five more foreign companies to invest in the information technology and the IT enabled services sector in the state.

"We are in talks with five companies, two of which are from the IT sector and the other three from the ITES sector. They would be meeting government officials in the next couple of months and are expected to set up operations in West Bengal soon," said G D Gautama, principal secretary, information technology department of the government of West Bengal.

Talking to reporters at the sidelines of an interactive workshop on 'Unlocking the BPO Potential: Emerging opportunities', organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in the city today, Gautama said the search for consultants for a feasibility study for a new 200 acre IT park at Rajarhat in Kolkata was on. C B Richard Ellis has already initiated a feasibility study for the proposed Sunrise City at Nonadanga.

Ruby Roy Dholakia, professor of marketing and electronics commerce, College of Business Administration, Kingston University, said in her presentation at the workshop that it was time smaller US and UK based companies started outsourcing jobs to other countries.

This was because they were being forced to cut cost of operation be remain competitive. "India, therefore will have to appropriately equip itself to catch the bus," she explained.

D Bhattacharya, senior consultant, Tata Consultancy Services, said in his presentation on 'skill Availability and requirements for the BPO segment' India would require 300 million English speaking graduates by 2008 if it had to remain at the top of the agenda for US and UK companies.

The state would be needed to provide focused education system which would train students to take up jobs in the sector. He said image building exercise of India abroad needed to be beefed up and Indian operators needed to have increased commitment to quality.

Mentioning a study done by McKinsey in the US, Bhattacharya said US companies were in favour of developing a global strategy for outsourcing with India as focus.

They were also of the view that offshore BPO was a mega trend that would not change. They were of the view that geo-political stability would increase and more and more US business would start relying on India.