Role of Software industries in the transformation of Durgapur’s economy

Last week when my sister got placed in a famous IT company of Durgapur, I remembered how immensely, I used to search for a web development job here back in 2007. What was lacking back then was the IT literacy among the people of the city, compelling the entrepreneurs to think that it was not a very good business to deal with here? But, the scenario has changed now. Finding an IT company in Durgapur doesn’t take much time today. With the advancement of technology and a huge demand for IT related services overseas, the businessmen of Durgapur are finding this industry quite lucrative to invest their capital in it. In fact, the way the companies are mushrooming up in almost every alley, if it continues in this manner, the saturation point may be reached sooner.

But what was the picture a few decades back?

As a local inhabitant, I have seen Durgapur very closely. Once a rural area, Durgapur has now emerged itself into an industrial belt with the population increasing almost every day. According to the 2011 census report, the total population of Durgapur is 5,66,937 which is approximately 1.39% more than the 2001 population census. But the change didn’t happen within a night. Being predominantly an agriculture-based area, Durgapur’s graph of progression as an industrial belt had started to expand some 50 years back, when then chief minister of West Bengal, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy took a project to make Durgapur an industrial belt, resulting in the birth of some coke ovens & steel plants and a huge amount of migration of the people with an aim of meeting their end’s meet.

The history of Durgapur has evolved from agriculture to industry to IT.

The IT revolution of this city has started not very long time ago. With the rapid increase of population of this city, the ratio of demand and supply started to fluctuate, making a huge quantity of youth unemployed at the end of the 90’s. Two reasons behind this were the capacity of the factories were already saturated and the job industry was taking a huge turn from hardware to software all over the globe. Moreover, the open economy had given birth to many private institutions in the heart of the city, but the job opportunity was still limited. As a consequence, most of the youths graduating on IT studies from Durgapur started to migrate to other cities like Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai & Hyderabad. This made the city fall on the face as the young generation were inclined to relocate to other cities.

On the other hand, the impact of globalization had compelled the entrepreneurs of Durgapur to invest in the software development industries in order to keep pace with the progress and to stay forward in the competition. This has resulted in the birth of the software development companies in Durgapur.

What reasons play the vital role behind this huge switching?

A recent survey has revealed that the number of IT companies in Durgapur today has increased 10 times than what it was a decade ago. There are certain reasons behind this drifting.

The basic investment cost is meager

Firstly, the primary investment in the software companies is comparatively lesser than any other industry. It takes hardly few bucks for the entire arrangement because you can run a software company on the basis of few people, a computer, and a few other types of equipment. This has attracted the small scale business owners of Durgapur to invest their limited capital in this industry only.

Engagement of manpower is not huge initially

To start up such a company, you don’t need a lot of employees. At the beginning, you and your friends can easily establish a company if you have the business mentality and management skills.

One time investment

Starting a software development company has a huge benefit, i.e., you only have to invest at the beginning in order to set up the structure and for purchasing the equipment. But once the investment costs overcome, there is only profit left for you.

Geographical location

Durgapur is situated in the southern part of West Bengal, which is connected with Asansol on the west and Burdwan on the east. The metro city Kolkata is hardly 165 km far from Durgapur and is well connected by various transport systems. This has made Durgapur the center of industrial areas and has enriched its resourcefulness.

Benefits of this drastic change

Nowadays, the fresh IT graduates are not finding that much difficulty in getting a job in their hometown, which has deteriorated the relocation rate. Moreover, almost all the software development companies of Durgapur follow a basic structure which deploys certain departments like designing, web development, app development, software development, digital marketing, content writing & sales, both inbound and outbound. This has resulted in the huge employment and has helped many youths to start their career from their hometown only, as they are finding it quite beneficial than relocating to some other city. How come? Let’s see-

Salary scale

No doubt, this industry has a huge revenue generation and thus, the employers can easily draw a handsome salary if they have enough experience and skill. If you are getting a good salary in your hometown only, relocating to the metro cities would cost you much and won’t be that advantageous for you. Thus, the ‘brain drain’ and the migration of the merits can be controlled and prohibited.

Obtaining more manpower

Durgapur is comparatively cheaper than any other metro city, a reason for which the migration of youth from Durgapur has decreased is the reason for the relocation of other people to Durgapur. People with huge experience and knowledge in the IT industries come to settle down here as it is not only cheaper but also has a proper city structure and urban culture that helps to earn a good living.

On the other hand, this has changed the economic, social & cultural aspects of Durgapur drastically. As many youths are getting placed here only, the huge drift of the productive persons has been decreased. The businessmen are investing their profit in a business from which they are gaining a huge revenue that is actually making Durgapur economically more sound. Today, people have money in their hands, which is impacting on the growth of the market of products in Durgapur. Not only that, launching of more and more software development companies is enhancing the social significance of Durgapur, providing it an opportunity to compete with the other technically sound metro cities, which has paved the way of Durgapur of becoming one of the ‘smart cities’ of India as declared by the honorable chief minister of West Bengal, Miss Mamata Banerjee.

Author Bio:

RL Ganguly, the MD of RL Infotechh Solutions, is a prolific author and a research scholar with a vast experience in IT & technologies. His survey has proved that the increase of software development companies has benefited Durgapur in many ways.