Bengal forms sectoral panels for govt-industry synergy

Amit Mitra, the principal chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said the committee for agriculture and allied products will be co-chaired by ITC Ltd chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri.Titagarh Wagons managing director Umesh Chowdhury will co-chair the MSME panel, while Patton Groups Sanjay Budhia will take on the role for exports, Ambuja Neotia Groups Harsh Neotia for services and Luxmi Teas Rudra Chatterjee for tourism.The announcement was made on the second and concluding day of the Bengal Global Business Summit.

The West Bengal government on Thursday announced setting up of sectoral committees to forge synergies between the authorities and industries in which business doyens will function as co-chairmen. Amit Mitra, the principal chief advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, said the committee for agriculture and allied products will be co-chaired by ITC Ltd chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri.

Titagarh Wagons managing director Umesh Chowdhury will co-chair the MSME panel, while Patton Group's Sanjay Budhia will take on the role for exports, Ambuja Neotia Group's Harsh Neotia for services and Luxmi Tea's Rudra Chatterjee for tourism.

The announcement was made on the second and concluding day of the Bengal Global Business Summit. Puri said agriculture is the lifeline of the state's economy. During the meet, more than 95 MoUs have been signed, involving an investment of Rs 3,000 crore, he said, adding that the state needs to create more farmer producer organisations (FPOs) and make improvements in quality.

Chowdhury stated that the MSME sector needs the government's support for expansion.

Speaking on exports, Budhia said the state government has given priority to this sector and many companies are keen to set up their export base in India for geopolitical reasons. West Bengal can benefit from that, he said. Neotia stated that eight letters of intent, involving an investment of Rs 1,000 crore have been signed in the services sector. Chatterjee mentioned that the tourism sector will see an investment of Rs 4,900 crore over the next three years, and the target is to increase the "number of inbound traffic from 100 million to 300 per year''. He also said the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) infrastructure will attract business tourism in West Bengal. Finland government's Under-secretary of Petri Peltonen said his country will collaborate in the areas of school education, inclusive digitalisation and sustainable energy solutions.

West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation managing director Vandana Yadav said MoUs were signed in coal mining, irrigation and waterways, and also for a Rs 1000-crore hospital at Howrah. Agreements were signed with Microsoft for state-of-the-art school education, Nabard for rural micro-enterprises, textiles, industrial parks and for an electric bus plant at Murshidabad, which will attract an investment of Rs 2,500-3,000 crore.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also inaugurated Flipkart's warehouse at Haringhata, which will create 20,000 jobs over time.

Vikram Solar, which has a plant at Falta SEZ, announced an expansion of power generation capacity from 1,200 MW to 2,000 MW by 2023 and also the setting up of an R&D facility at Bengal Silicon Valley. Jubilant Foodworks, which runs restaurants like Domino's Pizza, will set up a modern food processing plant at Naihati in North 24 Parganas, involving an investment of Rs 100 crore.

Banerjee said the state attracted an investment of Rs 3.42 lakh crore and will create 40 lakh jobs.

The next BGBS will be held in 2023 between February 1 and 3, she added.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)