IT exports from Bengal crosses national average

Kolkata, May 11(UNI) West Bengal has outpaced national growth in the Information Technology(IT) and IT enabled services (ITeS) exports from West Bengal for 2006-07.

IT department sources today said gross IT and ITeS exports by under the STP (software technology park) scheme in the state have witnessed around 41 per cent growth compared to the national growth of 32.6 per cent.

IT Minister Debesh Das said the state aims to become one of the top three IT states by 2010 with a 15-20 per cent share in the country's IT contribution.

Four companies---Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HSBC, Tech Mahindra and GenPact--were the star performers this year contributing substantially in export growth.

Exports from Bengal clocked Rs 3161 crore as against Rs 2167 crore in 2005-06. Service and software exports from India reported a 32.6 per cent growth to Rs 1,39,500 crore in 2006-07.

The number of companies operating under the STP scheme in the state did not grow considerably as it was at 176 compared with 166 in 2005-06.

Mr Das said the software and software services export growth in the state was perhaps the highest among all other states where IT and ITeS have a large presence.

UNI