The need to develop soft skills in students aspiring for an IT career is being felt more and more. Even the West Bengal IT minister Debesh Das  admitted students graduating from the various colleges in the state, including engineering colleges, lacked soft skills.

Keeping this in mind, the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)  with Bengal Engineering and Science University and West Bengal University of Technology  to provide  a training programme for the development of soft skills for students aspiring for an IT career. Software giants like Acclaris have showed their interests to provide soft skill training for faculty members of leading engineering colleges. Faculty members would then be well equipped to hand down the skills to students.

Meanwhile the state IT minister Debesh Das once again harped on the promising IT prospects of West Bengal, saying the IT sector in the state would create two lakhs jobs by 2010. Speaking at a workshop in Jalpaiguri in the northern [art of the state, Mr Das said the government would open  a new IT unit in Dabgram, near Siliguri. X