The Hindu Business Line : TCS setting up learning centre in IIT Guwahati

Major step
This is the first collaboration between TCS and IIT.
TCS has inked another agreement with the Guwahati Development Department for leasing 50 flats of National Games Village here for the venture.

Sushanta Talukdar

Guwahati, March 1 Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Saturday became the first major IT player in the country to have embarked on a long term investment commitment in the region and inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati for setting up a learning centre on its campus.

The TCS learning centre will impart the “Initial Learning Programme” for the fresh engineering graduates and the Ignite training program for the science graduates, both on a continuous basis in the proposed facility to be set up. Ignite is a TCS initiative designed to build a strong foundation in the software industry through a customised curriculum. It begins with logic and problem solving methods and moves to their applications in the real world. Initial Learning Programme (ILP) is for newly recruited engineering graduates and post graduates in computer application.

This is also the first collaboration between TCS and an IIT. TCS also inked another agreement with the Guwahati Development Department for leasing 50 flats of National Games Village here for the venture.

Speaking on the occasion of signing of MoUs here, the CEO and MD of TCS, Mr S. Ramadorai, described the event as “the beginning of a long term commitment by TCS in the North-East” to harness and develop the intellectual capital available in the region.

He said that two key factors behind the TCS decision to come to the State were the availability of talented manpower and industry-friendly attitude of the Assam Government.

He said with three more engineering colleges in pipeline the total number of engineering graduates in the region would be around 2,000 each year.

Mr Ramadorai announced that the TCS Learning Centre would start by the middle of this year and about 150 engineering graduates would be trained in the first batch. Faculty of IIT-G will take part in the Learning Centre Programmes of TCS and TCS faculty will provide support to the teaching programmes of the IIT by taking some classes for its students.

The Union Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Jairam Ramesh, who took the initiative in bringing TCS to Assam, described the venture as the first major step in the process of IT companies shifting their focus from recruitment to investment in the region. He said that about five to ten per cent of manpower of almost all IT companies is recruited from northeast but the region was yet to see investment by sector.

Mr Ramesh hoped that TCS entry into Guwahati would have catalytic effect on other players to make the capital city their next IT destination for investment.

He said though there are three Software Technology Parks in Guwahati, Imphal and Gangtok, their contribution is almost zero to country’s total software exports of $40 billion. To the contrary, 95 per cent of the country’s total software exports is from seven cities—Bangalore (33 per cent), Delhi(15 per cent), Chennai (14 per cent), Hyderabad (13 per cent), Pune (10 per cent), New Mumbai (8 per cent) followed by Kolkata (2 per cent), he added.

Mr Ramesh hoped that TCS entry into Guwahati would trigger same kind economic development in the city as it did after the company had entered Kolkata 10 years back. The Union Minister said that about 14 per cent of TCS’s total revenue of $4.3 billioncomes from Kolkata.

The Assam Chief Minister, Mr Tarun Gogoi, Assam’s Minister for Information Technology, GDD and Health, Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma and the IIT Guwahati Director, Mr Gautom Barua also spoke on the occasion.

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