Mukherjee

London, March 18: A Bengal government minister last night promised a group of British businessmen that Calcutta would once again claim its historic position as ?the knowledge capital of India?.

Manabendra Mukherjee, minister in charge, departments of information technology and environment, who has been on a three-day visit to the UK at the head of a delegation with 15 specialist IT companies, also said Calcutta would match Bangalore as a major ?IT hub? of India.

The minister pledged that every one of the nearly 10,000 schools and madarsas in Bengal would be provided with computers, so that every child in the state grew up familiar with information technology. So far, computers had been provided to 3,500 schools, he added.

Mukherjee acknowledged, however, that Calcutta had an ?image problem?, partly because it was still associated in the public mind with Mother Teresa and the City of Joy (the film and book).

Listening to Mukherjee at a reception given in London by the Bengal delegation were representatives of banks, financial institutions and IT companies.

Among the guests were Ken Green, of Tata Consultancy Services (his clients include Ferrari, for whom Tata does all the in-car electronics); Prem Johal, of Credit Suisse?s Indian banking division; Mark ?Connor, a lawyer who works on IT contracts; and Hugh Sandeman, who has just joined the London Stock Exchange with the sole responsibility of encouraging companies in India to raise money on the London money markets.

Mukherjee was big enough to tell his guests that when it comes to IT, ?I?m representing the whole of India?. With an attitude like this, he is in danger of going far.

However, he did play up Bengal?s strengths. He even went out of his way to express gratitude to ?our former rulers? for having established the best universities in Calcutta.

He commented on one question that he said he had been asked on his UK tour: how would India meet the challenge of China?

He pointed out that in 20 years, because of China?s ?one-child policy?, the country would be left with an ageing pool of talent, whereas India?s large and still young population, once thought to be a disadvantage, would prove to be a blessing in disguise because of the spread of education.

And Bengal had educational excellence, Mukherjee said. ?IIT Kharagpur is only 150 km from Calcutta. The Indian Institute of Management is the second best in India. There is also the Indian Statistical Institute. Bengal has the edge over the rest of India.?

To his credit, Mukherjee did not sound too boastful, even though there was a ripple of applause from fellow Bengali guests when he remarked: ?All the Indian Nobel Prize winners from India are from Calcutta or their work is associated with Calcutta.?

He said the Bengal government was forward thinking and had decided to make the dissemination of information technology a public sector undertaking ?rather like transport?. It was the only state in India to do so, he claimed.

He estimated that at present 2.8 per cent of global IT business came to India. The plan was to raise this in the medium term to 28 per cent ? a ?10-fold increase?.

If that were so, Calcutta was on track to become ?a major IT hub? in India.

He pinpointed Bengal?s problems: ?People know very little about us.?

Afterwards, in an interview with The Telegraph, Mukherjee said he had not intended to disparage Mother Teresa ? ?no doubt? she was a ?mahaan? human being. But her link with the city gave Calcutta a slightly negative image.

He also disclosed that broadband was coming to Calcutta in a big way. ?I have it at home via cable. Once you have had broadband, if you went back to narrowband you would think that your computer wasn?t working.?

He denied that the Marxist government had earlier made a huge mistake by banning the teaching of English in primary schools. ?Now it is compulsory from Class III though you can take it from Class I. Earlier it (the ban) was needed because villagers were afraid of education and we wanted to lighten the load of the children?s satchel. Now, parents want to know what is in the satchel. My generation needed English to get good jobs. Today, the same thing is true of computer literacy. We want all children in Bengal to be computer literate. It is most important to get computers into the madarsas.?

As guests left, they were given a goody bag by G.D. Gautama, Mukherjee?s principal secretary. It contained a nice packet of Darjeeling tea, bearing the legend ?Advantage Bengal? and a lion-shaped soft toy dressed in Bengali style in a dhoti with a green border.

The message that the Royal Bengal tiger was back in business might have proved a little too subtle even for the Brits.