Bengal eyes 25% of India's IT revenue by 2015

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The West Bengal government hopes to grab 25 percent of India's revenue from IT sector by 2015, state Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Friday and added that the new IT policy was being finalised.

"Our mission is that we want to get 25 percent of India's IT revenue by 2015. Unless we set a target, we cannot achieve that," Chatterjee said on the occasion of the foundation stone laying ceremony of IT major Cognizant's Green Technology Park at Bantala here.

"For that, we have to create excellent infrastructure to attract travellers from all over India. Promotion of innovation and becoming a leader in the IT sector is the vision for the next five years," he said.

The minister said the state government would provide all kinds of support to investors in the IT sector.

He said the new IT policy of the state was being finalised and it was to make the state a top destination for IT. The government has already identified 13 areas to set up IT hubs, the minister added.

"Foundation stones for the hubs will be laid during January and the first part of February 2012," he said.

The minister, also a senior Trinamool Congress leader, asserted that the government had initiated a process of reforms and was taking proactive steps to make West Bengal an attractive investment destination.

Chatterjee's statement on making the state an attractive investment destination came a day after Ratan Tata, chairman of salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, on Thursday said the company's position on going back to West Bengal with investment plans had not changed.

Tata made the comment referring to the problems the Nano factory faced in Singur.

"If the atmosphere is right, then we can look at it," he said during the Auto Expo in New Delhi.