IT, a public utility service in Bengal

Asserting that the state was poised to take off in the information technology sector, West Bengal IT minister Manabendra Mukherjee said his was the first state government in the country to declare infotech as a public utility service akin to emergency services.

"After having launched several e-governance projects, including those at the panchayat level, West Bengal has become the only state in the country to declare IT as a public utility service," he said.

The amendments carried out in several state laws were aimed at encouraging "hassle-free business" in IT, he said, adding the growth rate of IT industry in Kolkata at 119 per cent per annum was far beyond the national average of 36 per cent.

Observing that public utility services included water supply, electricity and several other essential items, he said several laws, including labour laws, had been amended in the recent past to cater to the varied demands of the IT sector.

"We have taken IT to the level of emergency services," he added.

Announcing that the first phase of India's biggest IT park would come up at Rajarhat on the outskirts of Kolkata next year, Mukherjee said almost all top global leaders in the sector had made large investments in Kolkata and elsewhere in the state while several others were coming in to set up shop.

These included IBM, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Cognizant, Wipro, HCL, NIIT and Siemens TCS, while their clients included United Airlines, ABN-AMRO, Hitachi, General Motors and Volvo.