City of Joy emerging as IT hub

BANGALORE: Kolkata is becoming the "City of Joy" for IT workers. About 30 IT companies set up base in the city last year. Most of them are in the BPO space, working for both the US and the UK.
Some of them are working in niche areas. Skytech is working with United Airlines and developing products for reservation and cargo automation; Vision Comptech is doing ship design work for the US market.
AIG Inc, one of the world''s largest insurance firms, is setting up its second Indian centre there (the first being in Chennai).PWC, now part of IBM, has its biggest audit centre, which is planning to ramp up to 4,000 people within two years.
According to Manabendra Mukerjee, minister-in-charge, information technology and environment department, West Bengal government, apart from Salt Lake, a second IT corridor is coming up connecting the airport. "We are also roping in Saurav Ganguly as brand ambassador for Kolkata IT," he added.
Major companies like TCS, IBM, Wipro, Cognizant and Lexmark (peripherals company) have also set up large operations there. And the latest buzz is that Infosys'' next expansion will be in Kolkata.
Says Amitabh Ray, director, IBM Global Services India (global delivery), which has a global delivery centre for e-business in Kolkata: "We are focussed on strengthening our commitment to the IT industry as well as to the government in West Bengal. We are also working to leverage the best of IT across open standards to drive the benefits of e-governance in the state. We have training initiatives to strengthen the state''s IT talent pool."
Mukerjee said the IT-enabled services policy classified ITES as a public utility service where no bandhs or strikes could affect the working of the units.
Lakshmi Narayanan, President & COO, Cognizant Technologies, says the company was attracted to Kolkata because of its good "ecosystem", which includes good quality of people from premier institutions such as IIM-Kolkata, Bengal College of Engineering, Jadavpur University, ISI, and IIT Kharagpur.