Kolkata, April 20 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her government has introduced a new policy to rope in industrialists for setting up information Technology-related ancillary ts and earmarked land for the scheme at the IT hub in northeastern Kolkata. Addressing the inaugural session of the sixth Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) here, Banerjee said the state was targeting the number one spot in industries. Bengal now has 2800 IT companies and 50,000 more employees are expected to join the workforce in the next five years at the IT Hub in Salt Lake Sector V area. A large number of industrialists, including Adani Grouphead Gautam Adani, JSW Group CMD Sajjan Jindal, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group Chairman Sanjiv Goenka, besides representatives from 49 countries are attending the two-day flagship investment summit of the state government. Besides inviting the IT firms to set up their ts in the state, Banerjee said her government has earmarked land for ancillary ts of IT-related manufacturing firms as per a new policy. She said three new business corridors are proposed to come up -Dank -Raghunathpur, Dank -Kalyani and Dank -Haldia – for transportation of business goods across the state. Banerjee informed the industrial tycoons that an oil exploration site of ONGC has commenced operations at Ashoke Nagar in North 24 Parganas district and a cable landing station was being built at Digha in East Medinipur district for business promotion. Reminding industrialists that Bengal had surplus power, Banerjee said her government was setting up three mega textile parks in the state, which has abundant natural resources for all seasons. She also mentioned the world-famous tea industry of Darjeeling and its auction centre at Siliguri. She said the state has huge tourism potential with a number of national parks, the world-famous mangrove forest of Sundarbans, Himalayan sites and sea resorts. Listing the achievements of her government, Banerjee said it has brought down the number of man-days lost in the state where strikes are virtually banned. Earlier after inaugurating the summit, STate Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar advocated that the state should avoid taking a confrontational stance against the centre: “It will be appropriate for Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to proactively catalyse “development bonhomie” with all concerned as it is imperative to distance development from partisan stance” The governor favoured a non-partisan approach and involvement of opposition parties in development programmes: “A greater reflection of the political spectrum of the state in participation in such ventures would surely be motivationally wholesome.” The governor also emphasised coordination with the Centre, calling for “synergic working between the central and state governments and all entities concerned, resulting in a geometric economic leap for the state”. “I am sure the Government is alive to the need of an investment-friendly wholesome ecosystem in governance as investors invariably look for political stability, democratic governance, transparent, accountable mechanism and systemic working, coupled with a peaceful environment and rule of law.” The governor said “West Bengal must work to be a significant part of the ongoing script of India’s economic rise by credibly exemplifying its commitment to transparent accountable decision making that is pivoted on systemic and not individualistic functioning.” Meanwhile, the Adani Group committed to pumping in Rs 10,000 crore in the state over the next decade, creating 20,000 to 25,000 new direct and indirect employment. The investment would a wide range of sectors including port, data centre, undersea cable, warehousing, logistics parks and a centre of excellence. Before the start of the inaugural session, Adani had a meeting with the Chief Minister. On the other hand, Hiranandani Group Managing Director Niranjan Hiranandani said they would invest Rs 15,000 crore in the state. PC SJC SSP ARN
