Hyderabad: The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) will launch the West Bengal Information Services portal next month in English and Bengali. "We are talking to the West Bengal government regarding the multiple roles of the portal," according to the company’s CEO, Mr. S Ramadorai.

However, West Bengal’s Web address is not yet finalised. "We will talk to the government and find out what they have in mind and then register the domain", a senior TCS official, Mr. V Chandrashekar, said recently. Mr. Chandrashekhar heads the e-governance section, which in company parlance is known as s-governance.

The portal, like AP’s, would evolve to allow interface of C2G – citizen to business, G2B – government to business and B2B or business-to-business. "Instead of having multiple counters across the state, this would be a portal having each of those counters.

"This cuts down time and money on travel, makes the entire process fast and functions across geographical lines", he said.

The portal envisages a citizen paying taxes online, the government publishing orders, business and trade units’ getting licences and even accessing these units to make purchases.