City-based RP Infosystem is planning to set up a hardware special economic zone (SEZ) in Baruipur, South 24-Parganas.

The hub will come up across 30 acres in two years, at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

A whole gamut of hardware — including motherboard, RAM, keyboard and LCD — will be developed in the SEZ, said a company official.

Kaustav Ray, the chairman of the company, said a bulk of the land has been procured and the government will soon be approached for approval. “There is some vested land as well. The government has promised to transfer it shortly,” Ray said.

He was speaking at a programme where RP Infosystem’s Chirag laptop was launched by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. Chirag’s brand ambassador Sourav Ganguly was present.

RP Infosystem plans to involve a Taiwanese and a Chinese company in the SEZ. Hasee (China) and Topstar (Taiwan) will provide technological support to the hub. In return, they will pick up equity in the project.

Speaking at the programme, the chief minister hoped that after software, Bengal will script a success story in hardware, too.

“Since people like Subir Raha are there, I hope something will materialise,” he said. Raha, a former chairman and managing director of ONGC, is a non-executive director of RP Infosystem.

Bhattacharjee launched the ‘Power Play Laptop’, with a price range from Rs 23,990 to Rs 35,990. Five models of the laptop have been launched.

Tech major store

Logitech, a Switzerland-based, $2.2-billion digital devices company, opened its maiden Asia Pacific outlet in Calcutta on Monday.

“Many people think that Calcutta is not a market for new concepts. But the city is definitely the place a lot of companies would like to be in and it’s an important market, which is rapidly growing” said Moninder Jain, the director (India and south-east Asia) of Logitech.

The 400-sq-ft store is on the ground floor of E-Mall, the electronics and technology mall on Chittaranjan Avenue. It is the “first such concept store” in Asia Pacific, bearing a “mass luxury upmarket” look. It will be “the only one for the next three-six months”.

Logitech has around 1,000 partners in eastern India, including 12 registered dealers and five “focussed” partners.

For now, consumers will not be able to buy Logitech products in the store. The outlet will operate as an experience zone. “The success of the store will not be measured by sales but by how many customers visit it to experience our products. We will recommend a list of partners from where the visitors can buy our products,” added Jain.

Logitech is a leader in the global computer peripherals (like mouse, keyboard, gaming components, speakers and webcams) market.