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KOLKATA, May 17

IT majors Intel and Compaq are in talks with the West Bengal Government for setting up `centres of excellence' in both software and hardware, which will be linked to the State's academic institutions.

The Minister for Information Technology, Mr Manab Mukherjee, said that IBM, which has already set up four such centres of excellence would be given the mandate for introducing computer education in 1,000 schools in the State.

Addressing the members of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce & Industry here on Thursday, the Minister said that the State Government was now working on a new incentive policy for the IT sector, which envisaged among other things, giving incentives to IT-enabled services also, with special incentives for early birds.

Mr Mukherjee said that, on its part, the State Government was working on a plan to declare IT an essential service, which will keep it out of the purview of bandhs, pave the way for three-shift working and make it possible to employ women on night duty. "We will make the necessary changes in the laws,'' he said.

Responding to the members' plea on downloading necessary forms from the State's Web sites, as part of IT application, Mr Mukherjee said that by July this year it should be possible to get many of the required forms in this manner. However, the Centre's policy intervention was needed before such forms could be accepted by the State Government.

Speaking on IT application, Mr Mukherjee noted that it was important to create "internal demand,'' so as to insulate the sector from the shocks of an excessive dependence on export markets. "It is up to the State Government to play a pro-active role in this regard,'' he said. On the State Government's plans to cover all the 10,000 State-run schools under its computer literacy programme, Mr Mukherjee said this was one of the pivots of the state's IT policy.

He, however, emphasised that the students at the various IT training institutes in the State faced the problem of obsolescence. "To combat this, greater emphasis needed to be given to the develop their fundamental knowledge base,'' he said.

The Minister added that software exports were not being undermined by the West Bengal Government, which had set a target of contributing 15 per cent of India's software exports by 2008.

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