GUWAHATI, May 20 � Three years after Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Tata Consultancy Services Learning Centre in Guwahati, it is going to shut down its operations. The closure is the outcome of a lease agreement between TCS and IIT Guwahati expiring this year.
The development that is unprecedented would scotch any hopes of IT majors operating in Guwahati or other parts of Northeast. It would also undermine the State Governments� repeated claims of bringing major IT players in the region that has technical people looking out for employment.
Sources in the TCS centre at IIT Guwahati told The Assam Tribune, �We are winding up operations in August, and by September we will pack up for good�.
The TCS Learning Centre was meant to conduct TCS� Initial Learning Program for engineering graduates from the Northeast and also to collaborate with IIT Guwahati. In due course the centre was able to train close to 2,000 women and men, in a globally recognized learning environment.
�Winding up of operations would be a big blow to talented youth of the region, as a fine window of opportunity of growth would cease to exist,� said a staff of the Learning Centre.
Apart from training engineers, the centre was instrumental in the spread of soft skills and computer technology in the region. Since its inception, highly qualified personnel from the facility were involved in outreach programmes in several educational institutes of the region. Each year around a dozen programmes were held to educate and empower youth in computing skills and related areas.
When contacted, the Director of IIT Guwahati, Gautam Barua said that TCS has been asked to vacate the premises after the expiry of a lease agreement. �The centre was started on the request of the Assam Government. The original agreement was for three years, after which TCS would have started operations from another location. We need the space used by TCS for our own activities,� the senior academic remarked.
Some of the personnel working in the centre are likely to be absorbed in a TCS facility at Kolkata, but the State would lose out on the critical interface that its faculty was having with scores of young science students of the region. It would also be a bad precedent for other IT players with any plans to set up office in the State.
