The Hindu Business Line : Bengal varsities, CII join hands for soft skills development

Kolkata, Aug. 6 The Bengal Engineering & Science University, the West Bengal University of Technology and the Confederation of Engineering Industry (CII) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the development of soft skills among students who are likely to opt for a career in the IT sector.

The MoU was signed at the two-day ICT East 2008 conference that began here n Wednesday under the aegis of the CII Eastern region and the Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Kiran Karnik, Immediate Past-President of Nasscom, said there was no reason to worry about the slowdown in the IT sector. Even last fiscal, exports went up by 21 per cent and the industry was on track to achieve its export targets.

Mr Sandipan Chakravortty, Chairman of CII Eastern Region, said West Bengal’s share in the country’s software exports was projected to grow five-fold from the present level of three per cent.

IT hubs

To facilitate this, the State Government was developing IT hubs in other locations in the State, such as Durgapur, Siliguri, Kharagpur, Kalyani and Haldia, said Mr Siddharth, Principal Secretary in the State’s IT Department.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Roopen Roy, Managing Director of Deloitte and Touche Consulting India Pvt Ltd, said that the country had earlier competed on the basis of cost arbitrage. However, with cost arbitrage going down, it was now incumbent on the Indian IT companies to venture into new models and products of delivery leveraging new trends and paradigms.

Mr Roy said the supply-side constraints from the HR and infrastructure perspective need to be addressed. He also stressed upon the imperatives to build brands and also look at acquisitions as key to companies’ growth strategies.

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