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| Himanta Biswa Sarma addresses a news conference on Assam’s IT Policy at Guwahati Town Club on Saturday. Picture by Eastern Projections |
Guwahati, Sept. 14 : The state’s information technology sector and business have welcomed Dispur’s decision to roll out the red carpet to Infosys and Wipro by offering each 100 acres of land in Guwahati.
“It is a welcome move by the state government and if materialises, will go a long way in terms of generating employment opportunities and growth of ancillary units here,” the director of Software Technology Park of India (STPI), P.K. Das, said today.
“I am saying so because we have seen that when Satyam, Wipro and Infosys came to Bhubaneswar in the late nineties, it triggered a considerable growth of local units there.”
“Connectivity is not a constraint because fibre bandwidth is available in Guwahati. The proposed units are 100 per cent export-oriented units and export certification is also possible in Guwahati. In fact, the STPI can do it,” Das said.
Information technology minister Himanta Biswa Sarma yesterday said that the Assam government was ready to give 100 acres of land each to Infosys and Wipro to set up IT hubs in Guwahati.
The chairman of policy advocacy committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Abhijit Barooah, described the government’s move as “timely and appropriate”.
“There is a good possibility of the two IT giants coming to Assam as they do not have any presence in eastern India except in Bhubaneswar.”
“I feel infrastructure-wise we are okay. Moreover, the facilities will be constructed by the companies according to their requirements and it will need around two years, which I think is enough time to simultaneously put in place other related infrastructure,” Barooah said.
The general secretary of the North East Information Technology Association (NEITA), Monikangkan Barooah, said: “If these companies come, it will generate local employment. There will also be spillover jobs and transfer of technologies to the local entrepreneurs.”
“We were looking for such an initiative for long and now we want the government to accelerate the process and take it to its logical conclusion,” the general secretary of the NGO said.
“I feel that land acquisition will not be a hurdle as 100 acres of land has already been acquired by the government and the rest is being acquired,” Barooah said.
“We have all the potentials and the creation of infrastructure for the IT companies will not be too much of a problem as the DoNER ministry has assured of infrastructure support to the region.”
Describing the move by the state government as a “revolutionary step”, the director of the Assam Institute of Management (AIM), Shantikam Hazarika, said: “We were lacking in will so far. This time IT minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has taken a keen interest and I hope that he will also ensure that the necessary infrastructure is put in place.”
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