The city’s IT hub, spread over Salt Lake’s Sector V and New Town, is booming, with as many as two dozen big names setting up shop here in 2022, creating more than 20,000 jobs in the last six months.
Demand for office space – a key marker of economic activity is also riding a crest, said industry insiders.
Four to five big IT companies alone had hired about 10,000 people over the last seven months or so. He said the pandemic had, in fact, given Kolkata an opportunity.
A lot of big IT companies based out of Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad started work from home during 2020, at the start of the pandemic, and a large chunk of the workforce were unwilling to return to office once the situation started normalising. In 2022, the companies started to realise that it made sense to retain their staff in Kolkata by setting up proper office infrastructure there.
The companies realised that the infrastructure in Kolkata was quite good. So, new companies started booking office space here. Companies also started hiring fresh people. We should not let this opportunity go” added a Senior Person, who has a more-than-two-decade-old association with Sector V.
‘Experiencing a dream run in the last 7-8 months’
The head of Nasscom’s Eastern Region Council, said there had been “substantial job creation” in the last six months. MD of home-grown IT firm in India, pointed out that a lot of job creation was in analytics. He said a lot of new companies in analytics had arrived in the city of late, creating more than 1,500 jobs in the last year. “The quality of the jobs is also increasing. Earlier, most companies were in app development. But now, there are a lot of high-end jobs,” he said.
Chairman of another Group said the demand for space was the most in almost 12 years since 2009. “We have been experiencing a dream run in the last seven-eight months,” he said. Senior Director of a major consultancy firm in East India, said, “There have been lots of big names coming for the first time in Sector V, which we haven’t seen in a decade.”
Some of the big names included Calsoft, Zensar Technologies, Grant Thornton, Mindtree, L&T Infotech, McKinsey, AML RightSource, IQVIA, ZuruTech and NTT. Chamaria said Mindtree alone had taken up 55,000sqft in a single office building. L&T Infotech and Zensar Technologies had also taken up floors in the second half of 2022. “Close to a million square feet have been taken up in Sector V and New Town together in the last year,” he added.
This as a sign of more companies wanting to make a presence in Kolkata. Sector V alone constituted 75% of office space demand in the city. “Positivity and traction are very good in Sector V and 2023 could be very positive”.
A real estate company, which is developing an IT park, in Sector V, pointed out that leasing had doubled in Sector V compared to the previous year. “A lot of spaces have been sold,” he added. Founder and CEO of a famous technology company, said local and national firms had set up shop in Sector V. “We are seeing a growth in jobs. This brings much-needed positivity in the local ecosystem,” he said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/