Compass generates 80% growth in IT business in Eastern region

Kolkata, Dec 11 (UNI) Computer Association of Eastern India(COMPASS) president Pawan Jajodia today claimed that the company accounts for about 80 per cent of the overall IT business in Eastern India.

Announcing the inaugural dates of their 12th IT Exhibition Compass 2007 here, Mr Jajodia said growth in IT sales and services was very encouraging in the eastern region, with about 30 per cent growth in sales of computer hardware and software in the past six months, which is higher than the national average of 22 per cent.

Exhibition Committee Chairman Arun Jalan said the company had asked for a larger plot of land for the exhibitions they hold every year. However, this time they have able to get only 2,500 sq meters of land for the four-day exhibition, which will be inaugurated by State IT minister Debesh Das on December 14.

'' The exhibition will host 76 particpants, including HP, Lenovo, Zenith and Seagate and at least 20 schools have been invited to participate, with awards being distributed in various categories at the end of the four-day event,'' Pranay Agarwal, Convenor of the exhibition said while speaking to media persons here.

'' This time we will be exhibiting not only computer hardware and softwares, but also several networking products and services that is increasingly becoming necessary in the eastern region,'' Mr Agarwal said.

While saying that Delhi and the national capital region has seen a growth rate of 32 per cent in IT business, Mr Agarwal said the Eastern zone is not far behind with a rate of approximately 30 per cent, which is higher than the nationwide growth rate of 22 per cent.

'' About 55 lakh PCs have been sold nationally last year, of which about 12 per cent was in West Bengal,'' said Mr Jajodia, while speaking about business made by COMPASS, and added that they have a target of Rs 400 crore for the next fiscal.

While responding to a question, Mr Jalan said that business in Guwahati and Bhubaneswar was being taken care of by their members there. But, the exhibition held here is targetted for only the people of this state, since the company has witnessed a substantial rise in sale of PCs, computer hardware parts and softwares in this part of the country during the past few years.

''The reason for this largely lies in the fact that affordability of computers have increased in the past 2-3 years with an increase of 12 per cent growth from the initial rate of eight per cent,'' said Mr Jalan.

UNI