The Hindu Business Line : ADAG to set up IT institute in Bengal

The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, has urged institutes of excellence to ensure that the benefits of research undertaken by them reaches the masses at the grassroots level.

Speaking at the foundation-laying ceremony of the Kolkata campus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), here on Tuesday, Mr Bhattacharjee said that while developments in science & technology have helped create wealth, the world is still divided into rich and poor nations.

It is imperative upon the scientific community and institutions like the IITs to ensure that research in the laboratories find application at the field level for the benefit of the masses.

"Only self-reliance and economic growth can help us in getting rid of the maladies that affect a third world country like ours. For this, we need indigenous technology to compete with other countries," he said, adding that, "we cannot stop the process of globalisation. However, we need a level-playing field to compete with others. We need the help of science & technology to compete with others," Mr Bhattacharjee said.

Second IISc

According to him, West Bengal needs more institutes like IIT-KGP to develop manpower that would help propel the State's economic development. The country's second Indian Institute of Science would be set up at Kalyani near here. The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group would also set up an advanced IT institute there. The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development has agreed to set up another university in North Bengal, he said.

The Kolkata campus of IIT-KGP will be set up at New Town Rajarhat at an estimated investment of Rs 250 crore. The West Bengal Government has allotted 10 acres of land for the purpose. The first batch of students at the new campus will be admitted in 2008.

Over time, the Kolkata campus will benefit 2,000 students. It will provide for an inter-disciplinary structure to incubation programmes, advanced research & development activities as well as short-term education programmes. It will have boarding and day boarding facilities as well.

Focus areas

The new campus will focus on areas such as information technology, VLSI & embedded systems, media & communication technologies, information assurance & security, urban & regional informatics, human resource management & business administration and bio-informatics. The new campus will also have incubation facilities to help start-up companies.

Among those present at the function were Mr Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman of the Board of Governors, IIT-KGP, and Prof. S.K. Dube, Director of IIT-KGP.

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