Bengal Silicon Valley Hub

"Foundation Stone of Bengal Silicon Valley Hub, a major milestone in IT infrastructure of the state, was laid today at New Town, Kolkata": Mamata Banerjee's Tweet on 13.8.2018.

Last Friday, on 28th September 2018, the notice inviting Expression of Interest was published. The cryptic notice published in newspapers read as follows:

The link to the document is http://wbhidcoltd.com/uploads/tender/Tender_2144.pdf . A good summary article appeared in Times of India on 29.9.2018. This was as follows:

The Silicon Valley site is located near Akankhya More / Gate 4 Eco Park. Its area is 200 acres. 24 plots of various sizes are offered at a special price to International and National Tech companies. Annual turnover of Rs 500 cr and presence in 10 states (for national cos) and 3 continents (US, Europe, Asia-Pacific) for International companies. Pre bid will be held on 10 Oct. Last date is 31 Oct. Application money is Rs 25 lakhs.
Projects must start within six months of allotment. It must be completeed within 3 years. If not, the land will be taken back and occupation charges will be levied.
There will be other phases too to accommodate other sectors of the IT&E spectrum. The idea is to go from big companies and then to medium and smaller ones in phases.
A 5 acre plot is earmarked for commercial activities which will be allotted at market prices in due course.
Govt of West Bengal is trying to tie up with international consultants to get the best strategy in moving forwards.
As per the IT&E Policy, the IT&E Department is enhancing its role as a catalyst and also trying up with Academic Institutions (IIT, MAKAUT, University of Kolkata, IIIT, NIT, ISI etc)  and Chambers of Commerce ( CII, BCCI, NASSCOM, ICC, MCCI etc) for setting up Centres of Excellence and for helping startups in areas ranging from IPRs to Financing.

Electric Vehicle Charging Stations in New Town

New Town is a Gold Rated certified Green City. It got the certificate from IGBC (Indian Green Building Council) recently. New Town is a city under the State Govt's Green City Mission.
New Town has been approved as one of the 100 Smart Cities of India.

It has three electric AC buses running successfully for the last four months within New Town: already more than 35,000 passengers have used it. It has e-Rickshaw stands and in the Bengalathon 2019 contest (now open: see https://bengalathon.wb.gov.in/ ) one of the problem statements relate to "Toto on Call". I myself use an electric e2o small vehicle for official works within Kolkata.
The idea of all these is to reduce carbon emissions and move towards a cleaner, greener sustainable  environment.

The idea is to encourage more and more people to use e-Vehicles. But electric vehicles (2, 3 or 4 wheelers) all suffer from "charge anxiety" where there is a worry about what would happen if charge suddenly runs out. For example , the e-car that I use to go to Nabanna from Hidco and back is just ok for a single charge (120 km) but I constantly monitor the battery power remaining. It would help if while I did my work at the destination the charge in the vehicle could be topped-up. A full charge requires 5 hours though.

There are fewer e-vehicles as there are no charging stations. There are no charging stations because there is no demand from e-vehicles. To change this chicken-n-egg problem, NKDA decided to put up few charging stations at suitable locations. These are just being commissioned.

Charging Station for Electric Vehicles 

near Rabindra Tirtha

Ten such charging stations have been installed, mostly near parking zones so that the e-car may get top up charge while waiting. Locations are at Parking lots near Rabindra Tirtha (see pic above, Tata Medical Centre, Nazrul Tirtha, Gates 1/ 4/ 6 of Eco Park,  Café Ekante. Axis Mall, Eco Urban Village and Central Mall.

In addition, Indian Oil's COCO (Company Operated Company Owned) smart outlet at Action Area 3 also has electric vehicle charging units. And for running the e-Buses, three heavy duty charging stations are located at bus terminal near Pride Hotel, AA3 Bus Stand near Sukhobristi and Eco Urban Village in AA2.

Great Indian Dessert Festival in December 2018 at Misti Hub

Yesterday, at Hidco Conference room, I took a review of two months' performance of Misti Hub. The main objective was to wean away the complimentary support given by Hidco in terms of house keeping, security guards, care-taking, common services and also prepare for the ensuing festival season.

I was told that most shops had done very good business in the two months since Mist Hub opened. Several lakhs of rupees' worth business was transacted on both months and all were advised to contribute to the expenses incurred on common services.

We decided that by Viswakarma Puja day on 17 September, we should converge on few planned interventions to spread the footprint of Misti Hub. Some actions agreed to with all owners of the Misti Hub were as follows:

1. Home Delivery through Swiggy, Zomato etc would be tried
2. Office / corporate packet menu (assorted sweets, in packets, for distribution in short meetings) would be suggested by all Misti Hub shops
3. For common branding, a special prestige carry bag would be designed with Misti Hub logo. This would be of cloth or jute and of three sizes small, medium and large. Would be kept centrally at reception counter and any shop or guest may buy it from Hidco person on duty. Own bags of shops would also carry Misti Hub logo along with their own logo, either on the same side or on the reverse
4. The racks on the right / north side would be replaced by chairs to make more room for sitting
5. Bus branding would be made to spread the word on Misti Hub
6. TV displays in each shop would display menu and graphics would be provided to Hidco for installation.
7. Eco Park visitors would be given, on some days, a discount coupon if all shops of Misti Hub agreed (they said they would think, discuss and revert)
5. A special "Great Indian Dessert Festival" would be organised in December by a private organiser where Hidco/ Misti Hub would be a venue partner. This will be held in the bike stand behind Misti Hub. The organiser has already started campaign in social media and this is their title page graphics on Facebook:

The idea is to enhance the 'sweetness' of the area around Misti Hub by invoking sweet tastes from around the world. More such Misti Events would be held in future.


Few administrative points were also discussed. Co-ordinating nodal person would be assigned on rotation basis every three months (first has been K C Dass), hygiene/ cleanliness/ plastic cap for shop assistants/ insistence on uniform T shirt with Misti Hub Logo, nudging customers to throw their leftovers and used plates into the dust-bins themselves.