Bengal has given IT public utility status, says Min

KOLKATA: State Information Technology and Electronics (IT&E) minister Partha Chatterjee on Thursday said the state government had given IT public utility status with

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee envisioning making the state the IT destination of the world.

He invited the leaders in IT industry to participate in a big way in the Bengal Global Business Summit scheduled in February 2022.

“Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced that the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) will be held sometime in February 2022. I invite all to come and participate there for more futuristic initiative,” Chatterjee said in his inaugural address of the 20th ICT EAST, organised by CII on Thursday virtually.

Chatterjee spoke at length about the focus of the state on data analysis, artificial intelligence, cyber security and animation.

He also said the government was earmarking another 100 acres for expanding the Bengal Silicon Valley to “catalyse the IT ecosystem in the state.”

According to the minister, Bengal is one of the preferred IT & ITES destinations in the country and is home to almost all the big names in the ICT industry. He stressed that one of the foremost objectives of the government is to promote, facilitate and enable the entrepreneurs, especially the MSME sector, to set up their IT units throughout the state.

He also said in the space of Cyber Security & Data Science, the Bengal Cyber Security Centre of Excellence will be a one-stop shop for creating and sustaining a mature cyber security ecosystem in the state. He maintained that despite the COVID-19 pandemic the IT parks in the state had been having 71 per cent occupancy.

The state presently has 18 IT parks spanned across 8 lakh square feet area.

“Four more IT parks will be operational soon and five are in the construction stage,” he added.