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"Kolkata has been categorized as a leader city because of the large number of English-speaking graduates it generates each year."
- Som Mittal, Nasscom President
Times Property Expo
Date: 4th – 6th July 2008
Venue: The Park Hotel, Kolkata
Website: www.timespropertyexpo.com
Visit : http://askolkata.org/
West Bengal IT Minister, Dr Debesh Das led a small delegation to USA, primarily with the objective to showcase the state in the recently held TiE Global conference at Silicon Valley, USA. A brief presentation in the conference by Hon’ble Minister received huge applause from an audience of who’s who in Silicon Valley, some of them evinced their sharp interest in West Bengal. Similar response was received when Minister addressed a symposium of CEOs and COOs at MIT on the intrinsic strengths of the state. There were series of productive meetings with companies like Synopsis, H.P, Signet Solar, Altiere, LED Engines, Mobidough, Lan Power etc. in the Valley. Most of these companies are in touch with the state govt. for furthering the possibilities of bringing their operations to Bengal. During his visits to Phoenix, Detroitt and Boston, Minister held meetings with EX3, Global Supply Chain Management, Celtic, Flipchip, Sterling Energy Systems Inc., Unisolar, Innovade and others which were also very encouraging. Hon’ble Minister also paid a visit to TJ Watson Research Centre of IBM at New York on an invitation from Dr Muhammad Hossain, Vice President, Global Business Development. IBM is furthering the prospects of technology engagement in the state.
New York based Telecom revenue management solution provider Connectiva Systems Inc. has decided to consolidate its global product development center – ‘Global Innovation Center’ in Kolkata. The company is infusing $5 million to expand its facility in Kolkata. The company will also concentrate on the Indian market for their revenue management solution in Telecom Industry. Connectiva has prestigious telecom clients across the world such as Celtel, Etisalat, Cable and Wireless, MTC Vodafone and Wataniya Telecom. The company is also eying new verticals such as energy, oil & gas, banking services where it has already developed expertise.
The US based company, Acclaris has started reaping the benefits of its alliance with the Universities in Bengal. The company has joined with Burdwan University to train students to be converted as skilled manpower while pursuing their University course curriculum. A large number of students have been taken by the company directly from Burdwan University to meet their requirement. The company also trained students in North Bengal University for their Siliguri facility. The company has initiated similar arrangement with other universities as well to develop skilled manpower at the universities. It offers a free of cost three months training program in the Universities and at the company campus which covers sector specific training and soft-skills.
In view of the large expansion programs of the leading IT companies in Kolkata and more new investments flowing into Bengal the supply of adequate trained manpower needs utmost attention. Nasscom in collaboration with West Bengal University of Technology will launch its NAC-Tech (Nasscom Assessment of Competence for Technology Grads) examination which will evaluate students for the IT industry. NAC-Tech will help industry to find right resource, co-ordinate with academic institutions to produce manpower in terms of industry relevance and employability. State IT department has rolled out finishing schools for engineering students in West Bengal which will cover both technical and soft skills for IT/ITeS industry. This will help producing the required over two lakh IT professionals in the State in the next two years. Nasscom has also decided to set up its Eastern Regional Council with representatives from major players in Kolkata. The Eastern Regional Council, among other activities, will address the cyber security and the manpower requirement of the IT sector in the Eastern Region. The other important agenda for Nasscom Regional Council will be to help and guide emerging IT companies in the Eastern Region.
Cognizant Technology Solution is concentrating on their business in Asia Pacific Region, largely in Japan, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong to escalate their operations. The market which presently contributes a meager percentage to their revenue, will become the major growth center for the company. The Kolkata center is gearing up to take the load. The company which presently employs 5000 professionals in different centers at Salt Lake, Kolkata, is coming up with their new SEZ facility at Bantala. The facility in the first phase will go operational by the end of the year to accommodate 4000 additional people. The second and third phase will accommodate another 4000 and 6000 professionals. The Bantala facility will be fully operational by 2010-11 with a capacity to engage 16000 employees.
Videocon has decided to invest 100 crores in its existing plant at Kolkata for manufacturing high-end LCD panels for television and computer manufacturers. The company expects huge demand for flat panel LCD televisions and LCD computer monitors. The company is also aiming to form a joint venture company with the State nodal agency Webel for manufacturing of consumer electronics products for the mid-market segment and rural markets.
West Bengal gets a fiber optics cable landing station at Digha, benefiting the IT/ITeS companies and other industry like petrochemical etc., not only in this part of the country but also in the neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Myanmar etc. With this landing station in the State, besides adding redundancy the cost of connectivity will reduce to a great extent and thereby help in boosting the IT sector in West Bengal. The work has already been awarded and some progress has been made.
Nasscom and management consulting firm AT Kearney have placed Kolkata in leaders category in their recent study. The city, among six others, has been identified as a leader because of the availability of the talent and the huge pool of English speaking graduates it produces every year. The study also placed Durgapur and Siliguri as aspirant locations that could emerge as IT/BPO hubs in their own rights. The findings came after analyzing data over 100 metrics, broken down into key parameters such as core infrastructure, talent, social infrastructure, cost of operation and government support. On all the counts, Kolkata scored high to be among the leaders.
Lufthansa, one of the largest airlines in Europe will now fly five days a week between Kolkata and Frankfurt. Kolkata has shown increasing traffic during the past months, with 60% accounting for business travelers, which has gained importance as a strategic growth market. Kolkata will soon have daily flights as announced by the company. Both Emirates and Thai Airways have also recently increased their flight frequencies to seven days a week from the city.
City based manufacturing companies are going strong to tap the mobile handset market. In the next two years there will be an estimated 500 million new connections in the country. The local group Xenitis, known for its low cost PC and laptop, is working out all possibilities to sell mobile phone at as low as Rs 500. The group has already bagged orders for 2 lakh mobile handsets from telecom service providers and some leading mobile phone manufacturers. The company plans to setup a handset unit near its existing facility at the outskirts of Kolkata on a 10 acres plot of land which will generate about 1000 additional jobs. Another local entity GeePee mobiles plan to jointly setup a mobile phone manufacturing unit in the State with Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan. The Joint Venture company will invest Rs 100 crore and employ around 1500 people.
IT NEWSLETTER - JUNE 2008
