His untiring patience and readiness to make time for anyone interested in hearing about IT investment prospects in West Bengal seem to have paid off. Dr Gyan Dutt Gautama, principal secretary, IT, Government of West Bengal can today say confidently that West Bengal has all it takes to become India's next big IT hub.

The troika of Dr Gautama, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and the state's IT minister Manabendra Mukherjee, have been working to dispel investor fears and realize the State's target of achieving 15 per cent of India's total software exports by 2010.

Their efforts are lending results. Despite getting late into IT, the state today boasts of 235 IT companies including TCS, IBM, Wipro, Cognizant Technology Services, NIIT and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“Talent or infrastructure is not the issue for us, but perception is. We are telling people to go by reality and not by perceptions,” says Dr Gautama. These perceptions include the State's hoary issues of the past such as trade unions, labor strikes, infrastructure problems and talent.

Dr Gautama, who took over as principal secretary two years ago, says investors are slowly but surely waking up to the actual reality in West Bengal. “The perception about West Bengal is not borne out by ground realities, which are vastly different. If it was not so, the giants in the IT sector would not expand at such a rapid pace. In addition, other big companies are exploring Kolkata and are setting up their facilities at a fast pace,” he says with justifiable pride.

And his personal contribution? “I think I have played an important role in working out a plan to change the perception about Kolkata. I have also identified the challenges we have in front of us and accordingly worked out a roadmap for the growth of IT.”

This veteran bureaucrat, who hails from Delhi, has served in the West Bengal administrative cadre for the last 28 years. He has held positions ranging from manning the State Financial Corporation, Power Development Corporation to chairman of the state electricity board until the IT assignment came his way in 2003.

Apart from his fervent efforts to promote IT in the state, Dr Gautama is a die-hard cricketer. He spends time as a coach at a Kolkata cricket camp. Little wonder then, that West Bengal roped in Bengal cricketing hero Sourav Ganguly as the brand ambassador to endorse the State's IT industry.