The West Bengal Government’s draft IT policy, yet to be tabled before the Cabinet, has laid emphasis on developing hardware clusters in the State, reports the Hindu Business Line.
The State has identified Kolkata and Tier II towns like Asansol, Falta, Kharagpur, Kalyani and Siliguri, as prospective areas for developing electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) and hardware units.
According to the draft IT policy papers, apart form infrastructure support, help to small and large investors to set up hardware and ESDM units will be provided through fiscal benefits such as reduced electricity tariffs and faster clearances.
Earlier, instances of hardware development in the region were restricted to a handful of local PC makers. Some solar photovoltaic cells are also being manufactured as an off-shoot of hardware.
“The draft has currently been circulated amongst all the committee members and is likely to be formally approved soon by them,” a committee member said.
The State Government has already formed advisory committee on software and hardware under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda. NR Narayana Murthy is the chief mentor. Another area of focus for the new Government would be gaming and animation.
