WB CM holds pre-Business Summit meetings with delegates and captains of industry

WB CM holds pre-Business Summit meetings with delegates and captains of industry

Posted on January 6, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

A day before the Bengal Global Business Summit 2015, WB CM Ms Mamata Banerjee had a series of pre- Summit meetings with various captains of the industry and delegates of foreign countries.

She met with the UKIBC (United Kingdom India Business Council) Chair RT Hon Patrica Hewitt in a very engaging meeting. UKIBC has also expressed interest to learn about the rapid growth in West Bengal and the State’s effort with “ease of doing business”, “openness of investment proposal” and have praised the CM’s effort. CM Ms Mamata Banerjee has termed this meeting as “fruitful”.

She had a one on one meeting with Adi Godrej, Chairman of Godrej group, Niranjan and Darshan Hiranandani of the Hiranandani Group, and Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Joint MD of Kinetic Motor Company.

She also met with His Excellency Ambassador of Israel, Daniel Carmon, who has two concrete proposals which will be taken up for tomorrow.

West Bengal has been taking a number of initiatives to rejuvenate the industrial scenario in the State. The State Government has been undertaking several policy measures and incentives for the overall socio-economic development of the economy.

Bengal Global Business Summit 2015, a brainchild of WB CM Ms Mamata Banerjee, will showcase the investment potential of the State before delegates and guests from 19 countries.

Bengal – Surging ahead in Tourism sector

Posted on January 6, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal is a land of scenic beauty as well as rich cultural heritage. While on one hand, the State can boast providing tourist attractions such as mountains, wildlife, sea beaches and historical sites, on the other hand, in the field of entertainment, Bengal has been a frontrunner from cinema to theatre, literature to philosophical works.The last three years saw a surge in both tourism and entertainment sector with numerous newer projects commissioned andcompleted.
Tourism

From the majestic hills at Darjeeling, to the beauty of Dooars, the historic places at Burdhaman, Murshidabad, the temples of Bishnupur, the forests at Jangalmahal, the Ayodha hills at Purulia the vibrant city of Kolkata, the Royal Bengal Tiger of Sundarbans, the holy place of Gangasagar and the virgin beaches of Bay of Bengal, Bengal has it all. Sundarbans and Darjeeling have been announced as UNESCO World Heritage site.

Digha

Tourism is an area of focus for the new government. The budgetary allocation has been increased from 32 crore to 180 crore for the year 2014-15 and proper infrastructure are being put to place. Here are a few of the achievements of the government under the leadership of CM Ms Mamata Banneree:

• Tourism is being developed under the PPP model in Gajoldoba, Jharkhali, Sabujdwip. New eco tourism parks, lodges adventure sports and other projects are being undertaken. Tourism parks are being created in Saili, Kunjanagar and Jaldapara. A tourist lodge is being constructed at Jhargram Rajbari under PPP model.

• Darjeeling and Dooars : The work of Eastern Dooars Tourism Circuit is complete and the work is going on the Western Circuit and the Mega Circuit project. Work of eco tourism project in Buxaduar is in the last phase. New tourist lodge is opened in Lamahata and renovation done for Tashi Ding Tourist Lodge. Vacant spaces in tea gardens will be used to develop and build tourist lodge.

Darjeeling

• Digha-Mandarmoni-Tajpur: A new Digha gateway has been constructed. A roadmarine drive from Digha and Mandarmoni is being planned. 36 tourist cottages have been constructed in Udaipur.

• Sunderban and Sagar Island: World’s first Mangrove is being set up. Tourist lodge, tourism complex, eco tourism parks and new jetties are being set up.

Sundarbans

• Jangalmahal: A circuit tourism is being set up in West Midnapore involving Jhargram, Belpahari and Hatibari. The project includes the development of Kankrajhore, Ketkijhora, Gurasini Hills, Ghagra Waterfalls, Ratneshwar Temple etc. Murutbaha Eco-Park is being built in Susunia Hills. Two circuit tourism projects, one involving Bankura, Susunia Hill, Saltora Range has been taken up and the other for Ayodhya Hills, Khayraberia and Murardi Dam are being taken up.

Ajodhya Hills, Purulia

• Gangasagar: CM Ms Mamata Banerjee visited Gangasagar with a team of industrialists. A new deep sea port will be set up with an investment of 12,000 crore. Three new beaches were named as “Dheusagar”, “Rupsagar” and “Bhorsagar”.

• Special emphasis has been given to cultural tourism, heritage tourism and home stay tourism,

• A lot of beautification projects have taken place. A new eco park and a new wax museum has been opened in Rajarhaat.

Entertainment Industry
Bengal has a rich history of heritage and culture. Calcutta is called as the culture capital of India, and under the leadership of CM Ms Mamata Banerjee, entertainment industry has found a new hope. Below are some of the noted achievements

• Six floors in the memory of Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen and Rituparno Ghosh have been constructed in the studio and the technician studio has been mordernised.

• Kolkata International Film Festival is now celebrated with greater grandeur. Various delegates from all over the globe grace the occasion. For the first time, Children’s Film Festival is also being organised.

• Renovation of various sites have been undertaken like the Minerva Theatre, Mahajati Sadan, Nazrul Manch, State Music Academy and etc

• Special assistance is given to folk artists. Pensions being given to many artists, technicians etc.

• Full scale film cities are being constructed in Dabgram and Baruipur.

Come to Bengal… Ride the growth: bengalglobalsummit.com

Rapid urban development in Bengal

Posted on January 5, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Among the developing countries, India witnesses the highest urbanisation. United Nation projects that in developing countries the urban population will double itself by 2050. The fast pace of urbanisation has put tremendous pressure in the existing infrastructure and public service across the world.

In last three and half years, the West Bengal Government has brought several schemes and policies with the purpose of improving the infrastructure of the municipalities.

Here are the major achievements of the West Bengal Government in the last 3 and half years in the urban development sector:

West Bengal Cabinet recently cleared ‘Theme Township’ scheme to be implemented at 6 cities – Kalyani, Siliguri, Bolpur, Durgapur, Bantala, Andal.

94 projects were undertaken for construction of dwelling houses for slum dwellers and urban poor. 15,000 houses have already been completed and more than 10,000 are in the process.

The KMC have completed the work of river bank development in Prinsep Ghat area. 14 other Ghats by the river Hooghly have been renovated.

10,000 new garbage bins are being introduced to Kolkata for making it a ‘clean city’.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has launched many computerised citizen service centres. They can pay their bills, property tax, license fees and renewal etc under one roof.

More than 1 lakh BPL urban youth have been trained under Swarnajayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojona with an objective of self-employment.

West Bengal Government launched helicopter services between Kolkata and Gangasagar, Bolpur and Santiniketan and from Durgapur, Malda and Balurghat.

720 flats have been constructed at New Town and Rajarhat under ‘Gitanjali’ prakalpo

With the financial assistance of JNNURM, 632 new Bus-services in Kolkata Metropolitan areas, 80 in Asansol-Durgapur areas and 140 in Siliguri-Jalpaiguri areas have been started

Come to Bengal… Ride the growth: bengalglobalsummit.com

19 countries to participate in Bengal Global Business Summit 2015

Posted on January 5, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Representatives of many industrialized nations are likely to take part in the Bengal Global Business Summit, which is being organized by the Mamata Banerjee government to attract investment to the state.

Entrepreneurs of national and international level will share their thoughts and experience in the two-day industry summit on January 7 and 8.

Delegates from 19 countries would take part in the industry summit. The participating countries include United States, United Kingdom, Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Luxembourg and Australia. Union finance minister Arun Jaitley will address the inaugural session of the summit.

The UK delegation would be led by former British minister and chairman of the UK India Business Council Patricia Hewitt. The Japanese delegation would include officials from Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the chief executive officer of Mitsubishi Chemicals, Hiroaki Ishizuka.

South Korea will be represented by the director of the Korean Trade Investment Promotion Agency (Kotra) F H Kim. The global senior vice-president of Samsung Electronics and top officials of Doshan will also be a part of Korean delegation.

In July last year, Kotra representatives visited the upcoming hardware cluster in Naihati to promote electronic systems design and manufacturing. Kotra has signed an MoU with the Rajasthan government for setting up a manufacturing hub there. It might explore the possibility of a second such facility in India in the future. The Bengal government also offered space in Panagarh and Goaltore industrial park to Kotra. There will be a strong delegation from Singapore that includes representatives of Changi. The chairman of Singapore-based Universal Success Enterprises Prasoon Mukherjee is also likely to attend the summit.

Top officials of Malaysia-based Scomi Engineering which had evinced interest to be the operator for East-West Metro services, will also be present in the summit.

“There will be more than 120 foreign delegates,” added sources. The identified focus sectors for the summit include urban infrastructure and housing, information technology, software and hardware, food processing, horticulture and floriculture, small and medium enterprises, textiles, health care, education, manufacturing, energy, infrastructure, hospitality, tourism and entertainment and financial services.

Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee will be there to listen to the entrepreneurs on both the days of the summit.

Story courtesy: The Times of India

West Bengal – ‘Power’ing ahead

Posted on January 5, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Infrastructure shapes the society and economy. Despite the economic constraints, West Bengal Government took measures to boost the infrastructure in the state. West Bengal which once faced severe power crisis is now a power-surplus state and load shedding is now a thing of past.

With a rise of 19.9% in total installed generation capacity in just two years, West Bengal has increased its installed capacity base from 8,316.8 MW in 2010-11 to 9,974.1 MW in 2012-13. This shows the efforts put in by the state government to keep the power surplus state ready for 100% electrification in the years to come. There have been some significant developments in every sphere of the power sector from generation to transmission.

Here are some of the achievements in the last 3 years:

4000 km of roads upgraded to double lanes or intermediate lane. Construction of 16 big bridges and five flyovers on rail track has been completed.

WBHDCL will construct 3000 km road in PPP model.

The work of the bridge over the river Subarnarekha at Bhasaraghat is going in full swing. The flyover in the VIP road is also going on.

Special emphasis has been given to Jangalmahal area. 12 new school buildings and hostels, one PTTI, 74 hostels for girls. 4 new colleges, 3 new stadiums, sports academy, polytechnic, ITIs are being constructed.

The Government is creating 16,000 kms of rural road covering 3349 gram panchayats.

West Bengal is one the few states where arrangements have been made for 24 hour power supply. Target has been fixed to supply power to every household within the end of 2015-16.

New thermal power centres are being constructed in Santaldih, Durgapur, Sagardighi, Raghunathpur. The Katwa thermal power project is expected to invite investments worth Rs 10,000 crore. Transmission sub stations have been installed in Dalkhola, Kalna, Khatra, Kakdwio, Kurseong, Sankrial food park, Howrah and Kharagpur.

Power banks have been created, thus excess power produced is saved. Remote islands of Sunderbans are being supplied with power through grid.

There has been remarkable development in power transmission infrastructure. 343 MVA Transformer capacity and construction of 887 km transmission line have been made in case of H T line. During the same time, in case of L T line, enhancement of 2654 MVA transformer capacity and construction of new 251674 km have been made.

There has been development of hydel power projects in Jaldhaka and remarkable increase in capacity under ‘Tista Canal Fall Hydel Power Scheme’.

State Power Transmission Company has got the ‘Power Line; 2012 award as the best power transmission company of India. Power Finance Corporation, IKRA and CARE combinedly in a rating for 2013, have announced State Power Transmission Company as the second best transmission company in India.

The state has secured the third prize in Best State Power Utility Awards, WBSEB received the second prize for management excellence and the first prize was awarded to CESC.

Come to Bengal… Ride the growth: http://bengalglobalsummit.com/

Written by Agnivo Niyogi and Sanmit Sarkar

MSME Sector: Backbone of Bengal’s Growth

Posted on January 4, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

Mirco Small Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector contributes nearly 8% of the GDP nationally, 45% of manufacturing outputs and 40% of exports. They provide the highest employment after agriculture.

West Bengal has the second largest number of MSME enterprises. It has 36.64 lakh enterprises which constitute about 10% of total Indian MSME enterprises. With an output of Rs 78,880 lakh crore it represents an important sector of West Bengal’s economy.

During the last 30 months, 29,735 new industries have been set-up, with an investment of Rs 2,595 crore, This has resulted in employment generation to the tune of 2,02,245 jobs.

Actions speak louder than words:

Policy for medium, micro and small-scale, and textile, industries, 2013-18 has been announced.

More than 29 thousand new enterprises have been set up with and investment in 2595 crore and expected employment generation of more than 2 lakh people.

Incentives of worth of Rs 191 crore have been provided. In terms of credit allotment by banks the amount stands at 8900 crore in the first month of the FY 2013-14. Both in terms of growth (105%)of bank credit and in terms of amounts, West Bengal stands first in the nation.

More than 5 lakhs identity card has been issued for both weavers and artisans. More than 3.8 lakh weavers have been register in health insurance schemes.

Various Marketing hubs, clusters, common facility centers have been set up. Biswa Bangla Haats have been opened in Durgapur and Rajarhat and in Santiniketan, Purulia, Bishnupur, Alipurduar, Siliguri and Jhargram more haats are in the process of opening.

Three new industrial hubs have been opened and construction work going on for Mega Textile Park in Belur, Silk Park in Malda, Eco-tourism Park in Banarhat and World Micro Market in Santiniketan.

16 Common Facility centres (CFC) have been created and 17 clusters have been created.

20 lakh man days have been generated in handloom sector and Rs 194 crore has been invested for 5 lakh handloom weavers.

A programme has been initiated under National Fibre Mission (NFM) to invest Rs 257 crore for 17,000 artisans and weavers in 11 underdeveloped districts.

Technology Facilitation Centre (TFC) has been started with co-operation of CSIR in Kolkata for MSME. Design Facilitation Centre (DFC) has been created in Kolkata for handloom weavers.

While the country performed abysmally with a 0.7% growth rate in the industrial sector, constant focus on the MSME sector has been a major factor in West Bengal’s achievement of a 9.58% industrial growth rate in the financial year 2013-14.

Come to Bengal… Ride the growth: bengalglobalsummit.com

Bengal receives Rs 83,000 crore investment in 3 years

Posted on January 3, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

West Bengal is all ready to host the Global Business Summit on 7- 8 January, 2015. There has been a turnaround of sorts after the new government took office in May, 2011.

The State revenues have gone up from Rs 21,000 crore to about Rs 39,000 crore, a growth unprecedented in the history of India. Industry leaders, not only from Bengal or India, but from places like Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, USA and UK are expected to attend the summit.

There are strong reasons for such enthusiasm, because actions speak louder than words.

Dr Amit Mitra, State Finance, Commerce and Industry Minister, said:

Contrary to general perception, West Bengal is riding on growth path. The state has attracted Rs 83,212 crore investment between April 2011 and December 2014

Tata group company TCS is building 40-acre campus to house 20,000 IT professionals

Tata Metaliks also plans to expand capacity, while Tata Hitachi Construction Machinery Co plans investment in R&D and up gradation work

State-run NTPC is setting up the largest power plant having 1,300 MW capacity with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore

Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals’ plant near Panagarh in West Bengal will use coal-bed-methane (CBM) as feedstock for its Rs 5,500 crore fertiliser unit

L&T is deeply engaged in state building highways, while the Shapoorji Pallonji Group received the permission to set up 20,000 apartments for LIG and MIG group

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group is investing Rs 600 crore for its cement plant on 100 acres of land

Orissa Cement and Emami Group are also investing Rs 600 crore each for setting up cement facilities in the state

Despite the propaganda by a section of the media and Opposition, the surge of development will continue unabated in Bengal, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee.

Economic growth: Bengal shows the way

Posted on January 3, 2015 | by admin2 | Leave a Comment

When the new Government came to power in West Bengal in 2011, the fiscal condition of the State was in disarray. There was a huge debt burden of about Rs 2 lakh crores and the GSDP growth rate was way below national average.

However, in the last three years, there has been a remarkable improvement on the economic front. There has been a turn of fortune for Bengal’s economy under the leadership of Ms Mamata Banerjee.

West Bengal was able to raise its tax collection during a period of economic downturn and reduced profit margins for companies because of its e-governance efforts. By making every registered dealer who has to pay tax worth Rs 2 Lakh or more to make payments only electronically, government has succeeded in increasing compliance and there by plugging out possible channels of leakages.

The numbers say it all:

The State revenue has gone up historically from around Rs 21,000 crore annually to around Rs 39,000 crore annually.

In FY 2013-14, GSDP growth rate was 7.7% vs national average of GDP : 4.9%

In FY 2013-14, growth in agriculture and allied sector was 5.28% vs national average of 4.6%

In FY 2013-14, growth in industrial sector was 9.58% vs the national average of 0.7%

In FY 2013-14, growth in service sector was 7.8% vs the national average of 6.9%

Total investment proposal received in the last 1000 days is in the tune of Rs 1,20,000 crore and the work in progress in the tune of 78,000 crore. Interested companies include SAIL, Ultratech cements, Reliance cements, ESSAR and others.

According to figures published by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), in 2014, up to 31^st October, the total investments implemented are in the tune of 3581 crore which is third highest in the nation.

In the last three and half years, total investments implemented is in the tune of Rs 7310 crore in “Big Industry”; compared to last 4 years of Left rule it is almost 2.5 times.

Creation of land banks, industrial clusters, clearance under 14Y has given a boost to Industrial growth.

14 new IT hubs have been sanctioned. 117 industrial units have been allotted in the government industrial park.

Come to Bengal… Ride the growth: http://bengalglobalsummit.com/