One million new employments in IT in 5 yrs

Kolkata, Dec 7: About one million IT professionals will be directly employed in the Indian IT sector in the next five years for which five IT knowledge cities are required.

Speaking on the sidelines of INFOCOM 2006, NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik said such knowledge townships would have various kinds of facilities including housing, schools, clubs, offices and every other facilities required.

The government should come forward to help the industry with land and infrastructure issues.

Ñ'If such knowledge cities come up in places like Siliguri or Haldia, industrialists will automatically start investing,Ò' he said.

''We are talking to the Centre to solve land acquisition problems that come along when any such cities are planned. So the government needs to address such issues,Ò' he added.

The Union and the state governments should create enabling conditions to facilitate growth of such townships, he observed.

UNI