Kolkata, July 13: Union Communication and IT Minister Arun Shourie on Friday praised the steps taken by the West Bengal government to develop the IT industry and promised his support in setting up software technology parks in Haldia and Siliguri. "In many areas, West Bengal can be futuristic because of its incomparable advantage in IT talent, social setup, infrastructure and gradual change in work culture," Shourie said while addressing members of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

"We are all together in development of IT and I request my colleagues to immediately start work at these two places (Haldia and Siliguri)... Coming up of these two parks in addition to existing ones in places like Kolkata, Durgapur and Kharagpur would augur well," he said.

Shourie said the facilities to be created would contribute in changing the image of West Bengal.
"IT is one thing that has helped change world's perception about India. It mitigated the disadvantage that the country had during last 20 years that we were nowhere near any growth engines unlike US and Southeast Asia, but now it does not really make any difference," he said. Bureau Report