Wipro chairman Azim Premji, while emerging from the Writer’s Buildings after a 50-minute meeting with the chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, told reporters, “We are committed to Bengal, we are committed to growth and we are committed to your government.” About the delay on the part of the West Bengal government in delivering the 90-acre plot in Jagadishpur near Vedic Village, Mr Premji said, “There is enough land for our needs on our Salt Lake premises as of now. There is no emergency on that (new plot) front.” Premji was in the city in connection with RBI's central board meeting. In April, the state had promised 90 acres each to Infosys and Wipro at Vedic Village as part of its plan to boost the growth of the IT sector here. However, the government has thus far not indicated a specific date by which it hopes to physically hand over the plots to these companies.  

Currently, Infosys, which is India's second-biggest software exporter, does not have a facility here. Premji's decision to give the government more time on the Vedic Village land, however, could be attributed to the belt-tightening exercise being engaged in by the domestic IT companies following the global financial meltdown.  

Software majors have been forced to revise their growth projections for the current fiscal because of the present economic climate. Sources in Wipro stressed that optimum utilisation of the existing campus, where a new building came up last month, was the need of the hour and not the opening of a new one. Efforts are on to maximise the utilisation of the company’s 19-acre campus in Sector V, which houses a BPO unit and a software development section. Plans are apparently on to dismantle the guest house on the campus and shift the people involved in non-core activities to an outside building.