” Ramadorai further said, “We are planning to start the centre by the middle of this year and to begin with we will train 150 engineering graduates. With three more engineering colleges coming up in the region, there will be over 2000 engineering graduates.”

Ajoy Mukherjee, Vice President and Head, Global HR, TCS, said, “The abundance of high quality talent available in the Northeast will be highlighted on a global scale through our initiatives. We plan to hire the faculty for the training centre as well as fresh graduates from colleges in this area and make them an integral part of TCS.”

As per the MoU, TCS trainees will have access to all facilities on the IIT-G campus, including classrooms, library as well as sport and recreational facilities. The new training facility in Guwahati will be used to conduct TCS’ globally recognized Initial Learning Program for fresh engineering graduates as well as the 7-month Ignite Training Program for the science graduates. TCS also signed a lease agreement with the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority for leasing 50 flats in the national games village for a period of three years.

Assam Chief Minister, Tarun Gogoi while attending the MoU signing ceremony called it a red-letter day for Assam. “I will meet Tata Group chairman, Ratan Tata for developing this centre into a full-fledged software development centre. Tata is at the top when it comes to social commitment,” said Gogoi.

Union Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, who has been instrumental in bringing this prestigious venture to Assam, said that Tata can only take this type of risk investment. “In 2007-08 the total merchandise export volume of India stands at around US $ 150 billion, out of which $ 40 billion came from IT sector. Seven cities of India including New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata and Navi Mumbai accounted for 90 per cent of the IT exports,” he said, adding, “I see Guwahati and Shillong making it to the IT map of India in the next couple of years.

Acknowledging the fact that ten per cent of the work force of some IT companies comprises of the manpower from Northeast, Ramesh revealed that in a recent competency assessment test conducted by National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) for 20,000 students, 6853 students from Northeast took the test. “The good news is NASSCOM is planning to start another such test, which will certify a student’s employability in an IT sector,” he said.

Assam IT Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma disclosed the State Government’s plan to set up a modern IT park spread over a sprawling area of 300 acres. “We are also coming up with a four-tier data bank project of around 4500sq. ft. Our Government is also launching a portal in collaboration with TCS,” he said.