Kolkata - IT & Business Parks

[kolkatarocks]

so true.....

Every time when i visit Bengal , it somehow just dissapoints me. People just dont care about industries there.....

[niljee]

Originally Posted by sourav2010

nowadays,in this age of powerful media and communication systems,sometime I wonder how come the people here can remain unmoved by the performances of states like Gujarat/TN or even neighbouring Bihar....probably,the common man of Bengal will understand all these someday,start thinking beyond politics and a revolution may start up.

What if somebody reads Pratidin/Ganashakti and watches only Channel 10/24 Ghanta?

[Cosmicbliss]

Originally Posted by Stranger99

Darker days ahead for WB. With a mad women at helm it seems the whole condition of WB is going to a completely wrong direction. History repeats itself when bengal people threw Congress govt and brought CPM in power in 70's and the decline started both political and economical. Once a city - hub of money & glamour turns into a so called 'Dying City' by 90's. Again a slight revival shown in late 90's and early 21st under Budhdhadev (we can check the economic growth during that time in any site) and then again that Singur saga and people threw CPM govt and bring Mamata in power. I guess we all went back to the 70-80's period of Jyoti Basu's time where vote bank will be the ultimate factor and all those populist policy will take the front seat. Its extremely depressing to even think about it - just when there was a glimpse of hope of revival of the state economy we again faltered. There should be a revolution in WB to get rid of the entire stagnated social & political system.God saves WB.

Things don't seem to be so bad are they?

[Sumanb]

Its depend upon the perspective. Arguably, for the people of Bengal, 'it seems', it doesn't matter. They can vote for 'non performance' years after years. For people based out of Bengal, its a case of 'missed opportunity'. On balance, I think we are going to the 'Kendrer Bonchona' route, which basically means - 'I am admitting nothing much is happening but don't blame me. I am helpless'.

[niljee]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

IOn balance, I think we are going to the 'Kendrer Bonchona' route, which basically means - 'I am admitting nothing much is happening but don't blame me. I am helpless'.

It has already started. Apodartho Chatterjee today provided more steam to it when he virtually gave up and said that no "unnayan" can happen if their "guardian", the center, doesnt help them. Basically they will sit idle with their fat asses, blame the center and sipem, do culture and strategize for the next election for the next 4 years.

[Stranger99]

Originally Posted by Cosmicbliss

Things don't seem to be so bad are they?

Nobody would be happier than me if i am proved wrong. But the facts dont say so. Look at the GDP figure, once WB in top3 out of all the states now its out of top 5 falling behind MH,TN,UP,AP&Gujrat.Karnataka & Rajasthan are about to touch and i am sure would cross WB in near future. Some might argue that may not be a proper criteria of growth, then look at the GDP growth rate.Things are wrose there. It was not that bad during 2003-2006. But things deteriorated drastically in the near past and the way things are going i dont see any chance of improvement in near future.What is more frustrating that even people & a certain section of meadia is supporting this situation.I am not against/for any political party but personally i felt Budhdhadev was going in right direction may be the process was wrong but Mamata is nothing but a replica of Jyoti Basu - all lecture but zero outcome.Its still a mystry to me how she has been voted as CM of a state!!!!!!!!!!!More importantly there is no one from her party who can rectify her action or even dare to do so.So the end result is that the fate of an entire state depends on the mood of one lady who really has no practical understanding of any public/political/economical matters. Go to Kolkata and you can see the mess every where....

[Camouflage1989]

Btw whats the status of the ITC infotech campus which was supposed to be set up on 15 acres plot in rajarhat??

[debayanlahiri]

Originally Posted by Stranger99

Go to Kolkata and you can see the mess every where....

What mess are you reffering here, which is not present in any other metro city in India?

And going by the context of ur post, if at all there are any mess which are so distinct, I would like to know if they were because MB was voted to power, or did such mess exist during BB?

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by debayanlahiri

What mess are you reffering here, which is not present in any other metro city in India?

And going by the context of ur post, if at all there are any mess which are so distinct, I would like to know if they were because MB was voted to power, or did such mess exist during BB?

But one thing to be kept in mind is that, people voted her to bring Bengal out of the mess created by LF. So saying that mess was there before is not going to help her. She has been voted to bring about a change in industrial scenario in WB. Until now, there has not been any sign of industrial revival or large scale investment.

[sourav2010]

Originally Posted by NiladriG

But one thing to be kept in mind is that, people voted her to bring Bengal out of the mess created by LF. So saying that mess was there before is not going to help her. She has been voted to bring about a change in industrial scenario in WB. Until now, there has not been any sign of industrial revival or large scale investment.

Perfectly said.we all know for what reason,majority of the common people of Bengal had voted for this 'change'. The mess created during the tenure of Jyoti Basu,had left WB in the state which we used to see 5-7 years back. Buddhadeb was probably the first person who had started thinking on a positive line and it can't be denied that big names like Tata,Jindal,Infy,Accenture and many more,had decided to invest in Bengal which one could not even dream even some years back.although this could not be termed as a full 'resurgence'',but its definitely true that things had atleast started moving on after years of complete non-performance....however,the overall bad experience of 30-35 years of CPM rule and some of the wrong decisions in recent times,made people to think for this ''change''.people had voted thinking that the mistakes committed during last Govt's tenure,won't be repeated. now after when one year has passed by,what we are getting to see on ground level---the situation has actually not improved a little bit,but in some cases it has even worsened! there has not been a single big name in the industry,which has made its entry in Bengal in last one year,neither has there been any annoucement from any big house.no one knows what has been the outcome of Industry summit or the Financial Hub annoucement.in addition to that,cases of Singur,Infosys,Jindal--all are still lying in a inconclusive state...also infrastructural projects like roads or highways have not seen any major change in their pace of development.The National Highways are lying in the same state as it used to be 1.5 years back.except the fact that work has started on some metro projects in Kolkata,which is definitely a good sign,there has been no major significant ''real'' development in terms of annoucement of any new infrastructural project across the state.every other day,when we open the news channel,we don't get to see a single news on any new development on industry front/infrastructure front,everywhere its the same blame game going on as it used to be during the rule of CPM...Only God knows,how long this situation will go on in Bengal..may be,we prefer to be always behind other states when it comes to development.I agree none of the Indian states/cities are devoid of dirty politics,because at the end of the day,we all are there in India only...but,when we step out of Bengal and go to any other state,the major difference that we find is that people know how to differentiate between development and politics...

[NiladriG]

Other states do development along with politics. Here it's only politics and nothing else. If Bihar can show some improvement under Nitish then waht's stopping MB from doing the same for WB. WB is much better than Bihar in terms of infrastructure, power, educated working force, economic output etc. Another problem is that ministers don't do anything unless instructed by MB. Govt. runs more like a classroom in a primary school.

[Stranger99]

Originally Posted by sourav2010

Perfectly said.we all know for what reason,majority of the common people of Bengal had voted for this 'change'. The mess created during the tenure of Jyoti Basu,had left WB in the state which we used to see 5-7 years back. Buddhadeb was probably the first person who had started thinking on a positive line and it can't be denied that big names like Tata,Jindal,Infy,Accenture and many more,had decided to invest in Bengal which one could not even dream even some years back.although this could not be termed as a full 'resurgence'',but its definitely true that things had atleast started moving on after years of complete non-performance....however,the overall bad experience of 30-35 years of CPM rule and some of the wrong decisions in recent times,made people to think for this ''change''.people had voted thinking that the mistakes committed during last Govt's tenure,won't be repeated. now after when one year has passed by,what we are getting to see on ground level---the situation has actually not improved a little bit,but in some cases it has even worsened! there has not been a single big name in the industry,which has made its entry in Bengal in last one year,neither has there been any annoucement from any big house.no one knows what has been the outcome of Industry summit or the Financial Hub annoucement.in addition to that,cases of Singur,Infosys,Jindal--all are still lying in a inconclusive state...also infrastructural projects like roads or highways have not seen any major change in their pace of development.The National Highways are lying in the same state as it used to be 1.5 years back.except the fact that work has started on some metro projects in Kolkata,which is definitely a good sign,there has been no major significant ''real'' development in terms of annoucement of any new infrastructural project across the state.every other day,when we open the news channel,we don't get to see a single news on any new development on industry front/infrastructure front,everywhere its the same blame game going on as it used to be during the rule of CPM...Only God knows,how long this situation will go on in Bengal..may be,we prefer to be always behind other states when it comes to development.I agree none of the Indian states/cities are devoid of dirty politics,because at the end of the day,we all are there in India only...but,when we step out of Bengal and go to any other state,the major difference that we find is that people know how to differentiate between development and politics...

Thanks sourav2010 for answering on my behalf. May be my wording was wrong in that last sentence. As you rightly quoted "Tata,Jindal,Infy,Accenture and many more,had decided to invest in Bengal which one could not even dream even some years back". Similarly all the major industrial project have been scrapped/stalled in the name of 'Maa-Mati-Manush' e.g: Petro Chemical hub at Nayachar, Nucelar power plant at Haripur; Singur episode is well known to every one - the entire land is left without any use yr after yr; no actual progress on Andal aerotropolis/Jindal project at Shalboni,similarly Infy project is also stalled.Not a single big investment has been anounced, although Mr Chatterjee claimed billon doller investment in the pipeline. Can anybody give me any facts here?? I dont care who is at power -the only thing i understand with current govt policy, its almost impossible to take WB out of the current mess it is in. Forget Maharashtra or gujrat, with the pace Bihar is changing under Nitish Kumar that day is not that far off when WB will struggle to compete even with Bihar. I know i sound pessimistic but i really hope i am proved wrong & some miracle happens.

[samrat_m]

Jindal project is not stalled, it is very much in progress.

Jindal likely to sign Salboni land deal in 10 days

TNN | Jul 11, 2012, 02.35AM IST
KOLKATA: The land lease agreement for the much-talked-about mega steel project of Sajjan Jindal-led JSW group is likely to be signed within 10 days. Jindal has recently transferred Rs 15 crore worth of shares to a trust for the landlosers which the group had promised to offer in 2007. The amount is equal to the price of the landmass bought by the group.

JSW group has been facing land glitches after over four years of 'permissible possession' of land at Salboni in West Midnapore. State commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee and WBIDC MD Nandini Chakraborty had a long meeting with JSW Bengal Steel joint managing director Biswadip Gupta and director S Radhakrishnan on Tuesday to sort out the differences.

Following the meeting, Chatterjee told reporters that the differences have been ironed out and the draft for the land lease agreement has been finalised. "Our chief minister wants to implement the project fast. There is convergence of opinion between JSW and the state government," he added.

Nor is the Petro Hub by USE Group stalled. The composition of the project has changed to give it an eco friendly flavour, but investment quantum remains intact. It now requires a fresh clearence from CRZ.

Nayachar project to require fresh CRZ clearance:

Calcutta, Mar 26 (PTI): The proposed Nayachar project would require fresh clearance from the Environment Department and also from the Coastal Regulatory Zone (CRZ) authority, West Bengal commerce and industries minister Partha Chatterjee said on Monday.

Replying during the question hour in the Assembly, Chatterjee said the state government had scrapped an earlier proposal of setting up of a chemical hub at Nayachar.

Instead, he said, a 2,000-MW thermal power plant, an industrial park and an eco-tourism project involving a total investment of Rs 26,000 crore, would come up on Nayachar Island which would be set up by Singapore-based Universal Success Enterprise Ltd.

He said the project would be environmentally friendly and sustainable.

While the power plant would entail an investment of Rs 12,000 crore, the industrial park and eco-tourism project would require Rs 12,000 crore and Rs 2,000 crore, respectively.

[NiladriG]

But timely implementation and completion of the projects is also necessary. It's useless claiming that investment of Rs. 80,000 crore is received in six months when there is not even 8000 crore of implementation happening. What matters is the ground reality, not fantasies. Govt. is too laid back when it comes to bringing industries.

[Stranger99]

I agree with NiladriG...both the above two projects were truely major investment and can play an important role in chainging the perception of bengal. But as both of them have been initiated and signed during Budhdha's rule, i really doubt how much effort this current govt would put for timely implementation. Lets wait and watch if anything concrete happen in next 3 & 1/2 yrs or any other major investment comes during this period.

[ppatra]

MB is trying to give complex solution for simple problems where expectation is totally opposite. If she would have allowed Wipro/Infy, that would itself change the perception and would attract investment in new economy. I am sure they would have started with little ivestment even in this econonic scenario. Kolkata still has an advantage in terms of IT labour cost.

It looks like if Wipro/Infy happens in SEZ forms, credit would still go to left. That might be in MB's mind.

However I still feel Salboni would happen. I think this is one project this govt has shown some +ve intent and unlike left govt, this govt is removing hurdles much faster. Probably the biggest problem lies now is getting un-iterrupted iron ore supply.

[ppatra]

http://www.anandabazar.com/3bus1.html

Looks like infosys may build in SP infocity. Hope this happens.

[niljee]

Originally Posted by ppatra

http://www.anandabazar.com/3bus1.html

Looks like infosys may build in SP infocity. Hope this happens.

Has Bengal lost interest in Infosys?
August 3, 2012 By KAUSHIK PRADHAN DC Kolkata

The West Bengal government seems to have lost hope to have Infosys facility in West Bengal. It becomes evident as no state government representative will meet Infosys chairman emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy, who will be here on Friday to attend two different programmes.

On being asked whether he would meet Mr Narayana Murthy during the latter’s stay in the city, state IT minister Partha Chatterjee replied: “No. What will be the benefit of such a meeting?” He sounded depressed for not being able to break the impasse of getting Infosys in the state.

Infosys is asking for SEZ status for its proposed facility as it is a part of their global policy but the Mamata Banerjee government is opposed to SEZ which has made the project a non-starter.

The 50-acre plot which was allotted to the Infosys at New Town- Rajarhat by the West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation in 2011 remains totally unutilised.

The company has been allotted land at Rs1.5 crore per acre. Nonutilisation of the land has also raised questions inside the government about the justification of the decision to allot such a big plot to a “nonstarter project”.

According to sources in the HIDCO, the price of that land is now around Rs12 crore an acre. “It is meaningless that the land will remain unutilised for an indefinite period. We believe that the land should be taken back immediately and re-allotted to others at the present market price,” sources said.

However, the state government is quite worried that such a decision will have a serious impact on the investment scenario in the state.

“The question of taking back the land does not arise as we desperately want to see this showcase project happening. We sincerely hope that a solution will come in near future,” a senior IT department

And in the same paper:

Narayana Murthy hopeful of Infosys' Kolkata centre
August 3, 2012 PTI Kolkata

Founder of software giant Infosys, N.R. Narayana Murthy on Friday said he was positive that the company's first centre would come up in the metropolis.

"I am certainly positive about the Kolkata centre. There is no doubt about it," Murthy said when asked about the future of the city unit for which the West Bengal government has allotted 50 acre at Rajarhat near here.

"There are solutions to all the problems. Therefore, there is a solution to everything which we think is unsolvable," Murthy, now chairman emeritus of Infosys, told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

While Infosys has been seeking SEZ status for the Kolkata centre, the state government has said that it was in-principle opposed to the idea.

Instead, the Mamata Banerjee led government has suggested that the Centre should extend the tax benefits given under the erstwhile Software Technology Park scheme.

Alternatively, the government is also toying with the idea of relocating the Infosys unit into any one of the existing SEZs in the state. The Kolkata centre is likely to create 5,000 jobs.

[samrat_m]

CTS, one of the earliest IT campuses of the city
Photos from Architect Edifice Consultants' website

[SamitB]

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