Make Guwahati your hub for Southeast Asia, Gogoi tells TCS

Guwahati may not be much of a location on India’s IT map, but with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi offering “all possible support”

Guwahati may not be much of a location on India’s IT map, but with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi offering “all possible support”, the Assam capital may soon become the pivot for the entire Southeast Asian operations of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

“We are ready to offer you all possible support. Guwahati is today a peaceful place, with a little aberration here and there, which is common to any other big city in the country. And, given its proximity to the Southeast Asian countries, I offer you all possible support to make Guwahati the pivot for your operations in the region,” Gogoi told TCS CEO S Ramadurai on Friday.

Ramadurai was here heading a team of six top TCS officials to explore possibilities of making its next investment in the Assam capital. Gogoi in fact took the TCS bosses to two locations in the city, the first a 148-acre plot near the airport, and the other a 100-acre plot adjacent to the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here.

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Gogoi said the IT industry should not bypass or ignore the Northeast, “especially when I am told that our boys and girls employed in the IT industry are doing wonderfully well including in TCS.”

“Guwahati today has very good connectivity. This city is well connected by air to any destination in the country. Broadband connectivity has also improved,” the CM said.

Backing him up was Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh who lamented that India’s IT industry was not bothered about the Northeast. “I am afraid the IT industry is not bothered about the Northeast. But Guwahati and Shillong have all the potential to be good IT hubs,” he said.

Ramesh also asked the TCS top boss to examine the possibility of setting up an IT centre for biotechnology in the Northeast. “This region being a bio-diversity hotspot, I think TCS should examine setting up an IT centre for biotechnology in the Northeast,” he said.

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TCS CEO Ramadurai, however, refrained from making any commitment. “I won’t make any commitment on day one itself. But a team will be here soon to carry out further study,” he said before winding up his five-hour trip to the Assam capital.