After Infosys,Wipro extends a prop for Rajarhat

The assurance was given by Wipro chairman Azim Premji who met chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Building n Wednesday. State IT minister Debes Das was also present at the meeting.

Premji kept mum after the meeting. But Das later briefed the media.

“Wipro is keen on expansion as early as possible,” he said. “At present,the Wipro office at Salt Lake has a staff strength of 6,500 and they said they can accommodate another 1,500 there at the most. So they want to expand fast and Premji told the chief minister that they will begin construction as quickly as possible.”

In view of the Trinamool protest in front of the office of Hidco — the government developer of the township — Das said he hoped he would get cooperation from all quarters. “I hope no industrialist after Ratan Tata will leave the state,” he said.

Among other things that cropped up in the discussion between the chief minister and Premzi were the various projects the company is executing in the state.

“Wipro is helping 40 municipalities — including Kolkata Municipal Corporation — in providing e-service to people and this was discussed,” he said. The company is also helping the health department in this area.

“Besides,we talked about the help that the Azim Premji Foundation provides to different schools in the state,” Das said.

“The chief minister asked Premji whether Wipro could do something to provide vocational training and other technical education to those who cannot become engineers,but have the capability to become good technicians. To this,Premji said he will require at least two years to do something,” he added.