The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry organized a Roundtable Meeting with the Stakeholders of ‘Samriddhi - Kalyani Analytics City’, a project that the Chamber has initiated with the Government of West Bengal.
The Meeting was organized to bring on board various experts in the field of development of the Analytics Hub - from real estate developers to technology experts, from foreign consulates to other stakeholders along with the Government.
Shri Debashis Sen, IAS, Principal Secretary, Departments of Urban Development and Town and Country Planning, Government of West Bengal and Chairman, West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (WBHIDCO) addressed the industry representatives and media. His department would be floating the e-auction tender in the next few months. The Bengal Chamber has already received positive response from investors - both domestic and international – for the project.
The roundtable included deliberations on ‘Analytics Landscape’ by Ms. Soma Banerjee, Chief Executive Officer, Business Brio and ‘Get Ready for the Age of the Zettabyte - Development of Manpower Resources for Analytics’ by Mr. Tridibesh Bandopadhyay, Advisor – KNOD India and Co-Founder InSkills. Mr. Dulal Mukherjee, Proprietor, Dulal Mukherjee and Associates and Managing Committee Member, The Bengal Chamber, who has drafted the blueprint of the project, described the contours of the city. The city landscape has been designed as per international standards, and it would create a benchmark in environmental compliances. A unique feature of the City would be the presence of a water body, which could also be used as a mode of transport.
‘Samriddhi’ had received special mention in the meetings of the Hon’ble Chief Minister of West Bengal Smt. Mamata Banerjee, during her visit to London. It is one of the six Smart Cities of the State. The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry had envisioned positioning Kolkata as a “niche city” specializing in IT applications rather than only a traditional IT hub. A niche city would mean promoting a select skill-set, just as Silicon Valley in the USA is known to be the home of technology companies and start-ups. West Bengal may take advantage of the most happening of businesses all around the globe – Analytics. Kolkata can ideally leverage its advantage of being home to intellectual manpower which is its unique attribute, backed by premier higher education institutions like IIT, ISI, IIEST, JU, IIM and others.
Earlier in the year, the Urban Development Department, Government of West Bengal and The Bengal Chamber had announced the commencement of the project at a Press Conference in Kalyani.