Kolkata today is a vibrant and growing city with a dynamic IT sector, a booming retail market, and a fast-expanding industrial scene in general. For those of you who have been away for a long time, this is the best time to return to Kolkata. Today the City of Joy is evolving and catching up fast with other Indian metros.

Everything here is changing, and changing for the better; from the skyline to the billboards, from the brands of vehicles on the city roads to the shopping malls with built-in cafes and multiplex movie theatres. The slow traffic has started to speed up, thanks to several new flyovers crisscrossing the city. Several new schools, like DPS Megacity, and colleges, like ICFAI, have opened, too.

Super-specialty hospitals are also being set up. Ratan Tata and Dr. Devi Shetty (of the Asia Heart Foundation) have promised to set up cancer hospitals. Also on the cards are a children's hospital, an eye hospital and a kidney treatment center, all on the same compound as Dr. Shetty’s cancer hospital.

Lifestyle, too, is changing. With an array of plush shopping malls that has flooded the city, Kolkatans now throng Forum, Shoppers' Stop, City Center, Pantaloons, and Westside. Pizza Huts and Dominoes, Café Coffee Days and KFCs have become the new-age hangouts, rather than the Coffee Houses, Anadis and Puntirams.

To sum it up, city is shedding off its old and plain clothing, and slowly, but steadily, putting on designer wear. Things that were once unheard of and unimaginable are now possible.

The perception about Calcutta, therefore, has been changing over the last two years, and changing in a positive direction. Though a late starter in the field of technology, the state has made enormous progress in the past five years. The Salt Lake Electronic Complex, or Saltlec (the Sector V region), is now one of the hottest IT destinations. It is spread across 150 acres of green, pollution-free land that houses over 175 IT companies and 15,000 professionals.

In the past few years, some of the biggest names, such as E&Y, Capgemini, Nokia, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Nortel Networks, Lexmark, Bharti (Airtel), Siemens, IXIA, and HSBC, have either set up facilities in Kolkata or are in the process of doing so. It is now being compared with more glamorous destinations, like Bangalore, Gurgaon and Hyderabad. Many more IT biggies have promised to anchor in Kolkata.

The state government has worked out a multi-pronged strategy and has created a new IT cell for facilitating all requirements related to IT investments. It has drafted a new IT policy keeping in mind the opportunities that IT will provide over the next decade in the state.

So, in the new millennium, the city is a “happening” mega polis, and Brand Kolkata is the next buzzword in the nation’s IT sector. Come be a part of the transformation.