Tag: Bengal

Some recent successes of the MSME Department

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The State Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Textiles Department has seen a lot of success over the last seven years of the Trinamool Congress Government.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee take a special interest in this department as the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) form the primary channel for reviving and sustaining the traditional arts and crafts of Bengal. Due to the stress given on helping these types of enterprises, there has been a large-scale economic revival especially across the rural belts and small towns of the State.

Some of the recent successes of the department are described below:

‘Joyee’ footballs by Refugee Handicrafts division: The Refugee Handicrafts division of the MSM Department has been doing exemplary work by engaging women from rural regions in manufacturing football, thus also reviving the football manufacturing industry in Bengal. These superior quality footballs are sold under the brand name of ‘Joyee’, given by Mamata Banerjee herself.

To make the products commercially successful, a decision has been taken to make the footballs available at least at one point in every district, besides in other places. People became well-aware of the football brand after the balls were distributed by the State Government among local clubs ahead of the FIFA Under-17 World Cup last October.

Model farm in Jhargram to help tribal population: A model farm has been set up in Jhargram district to help the tribal population there gain financial independence. The over-20-acre farm will produce vetiver, lemongrass and essential oils. Vetiver is used in making bags and mats, and the bags in which the saplings are given to the mothers of newborns under the Sabujshree scheme.

A distillation unit will also be established there. Over 50,000 people are already associated with the aroma industry in this district. This venture will be a blueprint for more such ventures, which will help in employment generation as well as in making many of the tribal people self-sufficient.

Aroma garden in Baruipur and Jhargram: The aroma industry is coming up in Bengal in a very big way. Towards that end, the MSME Department is setting up two aroma gardens – one on 4 acres at Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district and another on 40 acres in Jhargram.

Oil will be extracted from the plants and trees, even from the roots. Aroma therapy is used in beauty treatment and also to cure some diseases. Lavender, rosemary and lemongrass are being planted in Baruipur.

MSME: Marching ahead in Bangla

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Bangla is a leading state in the country in micro, small and medium enterprises. The multi pronged strategy and continuous innovative interventions of the State Government during the last seven years towards promotion of MSME focusing on inclusive growth have resulted in significant achievements in MSME sector.

Some of the notable achievements are mentioned below:

  • Among the top rankers in Ease of Doing Business in India, Highest number of MSME establishments (52.7 lakh) in organised (ie., registered) and unorganised (ie., unregistered) sectors, contributing 11.62% of the total MSME establishments in India employing 1,09,15,626 people
  • 28,008 units on an average registered per year between 2011-18, compared to 12,192 units between 2004-11
  • Average of 2,09,108 people employed per year between 2011 and 2018 in registered MSME sector, compared to a yearly average of 1,29,904 people between 2004 and 2011
  • 381 clusters established as in 2017, against 49 clusters as inn 2011
  • Average bank credit flow per year to MSME sector of Rs 24,272 crore between 2004 and 2011, compared to Rs 7,302 crore per year between 2004 and 2011
  • 20 industrial parks being developed under Scheme of Approved Industrial Parks and TexPro Bengal
  • More than 65,000 entrepreneurs provided services on filing udyog Aadhaar registration and disposing of statutory approvals
  • 13 Synergy events organised at State and regional-level, guiding and providing spot solutions on statutory and business requirements to over 50,000 entrepreneurs
  • Rs. 1,500 crore worth business proposals received from Hill Business Summit 2018 held in Darjeeling
  • Web-based services launched: statutory support – www.myenterprisewb.in, financial support – www.msmebengalinvest.in, technology support – www. msmetfc.in,
  • 1,47,500 entrepreneurs visited and took help of web-based tutorial at www.myenterprisewb.in

Safe Drive Save Life: State Govt to install reflectors on road dividers

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To prevent accidents at night, as part of the pioneering Safe Drive Save Life programme, the State Government has decided to install reflectors on road dividers.

The work between Golpark and Dhakuria in Kolkata has already started. Senior police officers say, during night, particularly when it rains heavily, drivers often fail to spot the dividers and hit them. In areas where there are small road dividers, drivers mount them after failing to negotiate lanes.

The reflectors will be seen from more than 50 feet away, even during rainy nights. Hence the installation of the reflectors will be of great help to drivers.

The State Transport Department has left no stone unturned to reduce the number of road accidents and to train drivers to pick up proper driving skills.

Source: Millennium Post

Rare pengba fish given new lease of life by Bangla Govt

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Through an initiative of the State Fisheries Department, fish farmers in Haldia have started cultivating the fish, pengba. According to experts, this fish of the carp family (to which rohu, catla, silver carp, etc. belong) is very tasty and hence has a high potential.

Pengba is the State fish of Manipur. However it has become rare there for various reasons. For this reason too this is a commendable effort by the Bangla Government.

Though native to colder climates, experts have found the fish to be readily adaptable to warmer waters too, thus making it a good choice for Haldia.

Also, being part of the carp family, pengba can be cultivated in mixed-carp cultivation farms, where rohu, common carp, catla, silver carp, mrigal, etc. are cultivated, thus making it easier to rear the fish.

Source: Aajkaal

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Message of communal harmony at I-Day celebrations at Red Road

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Bangla Government celebrated Independence Day with full honours today. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hoisted the National Flag at Red Road. Parades and cultural functions were held at the venue. The CM was given Guard of Honour.

Bangla Government conveyed the message of communal harmony at this year’s Independence Day parade on Red Road. A tableau based on the theme of ‘Oikotan’ (Harmony) was a part of the parade. Bauls and folk artistes participated in these tableaux which projected the ‘unity in diversity’ in Bangla.

Besides the tableau based on ‘Oikotan’, there were tableauxs on the popular schemes and projects of the State Government, like Kanyashree, Sabuj Sathi, Ruposhree, Sabuj Shree, Khadya Sathi and Safe Drive Save Life.

Mamata Banerjee slams the BJP on NRC issue

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Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a scathing attack against BJP president Amit Shah on the NRC issue on Tuesday.

Speaking at Nabanna, the state secretariat, she questioned the BJP chief and asked whether his parents had birth certificates.

The brutal attack came after Mamata Banerjee met a delegation from United Bengali Forum who had come from Assam to highlight their plight over the NRC issue.

“I want to ask Amit Shah, does his mother and father have birth certificates? If you ask me, I do not have my parent’s birth certificates. Would Swami Vivekananda have the certificates? Atal ji is ill now, so I cannot ask him, but I wish I could ask him whether he has all the certificates? One family can keep the record, not all. I belonged to a backward family, certificates were not maintained,” Mamata Banerjee said. She also said, “Would Gandhiji’s family have certificates?”

She went on to call the entire NRC exercise as politically motivated. “This is a political move ahead of the elections. Sometimes they (the Centre) will play India-Pakistan, sometimes they will play India-China. I am also hearing that they are getting the currency notes printed outside the country,” the CM alleged.

She alleged that Bengali-speaking population was being targeted. She claimed a majority of the 40 lakh who did not make it to the Assam draft list were a Bengali-speaking people.

“Of the total 40 lakh, 25 lakhs are Bengali Hindus, 13 lakhs Bengali Muslims and 2 lakh Nepalis, Biharis and others. I have shown you so many documents. People in Punjab and Pakistan speak the same language. People in Bengal and Bangladesh speak the same language. Isn’t Hindi and Urdu widely spoken in the country? If you do not like a particular community, you cannot spread hatred like this. Hasina ji (Bangla PM) is welcome, others not? Didn’t Bengal participate in the freedom struggle? What’s wrong in speaking the Bangla language?” she said.

She further said that even cows should now be given certificates to identify whether a cow is a refugee or an infiltrator. “My question is to all the Gau-rakshaks, is cow a refugee or an infiltrators. Make certificates for cows so that we know whether they are refugees or infiltrators. Amit Shah may not eat Hilsa fish. But people in Bangladesh, Bengal, UP and Bihar eat Hilsa fish. Is Hilsa a refugee or an infiltrator? This is super-emergency,” she claimed.

‘Are Hilsa, Jamdani also infiltrators?’ – Mamata Banerjee targets BJP Over Assam NRC

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Attacking the BJP-led central government over exclusion of 40 lakh people in the final draft of Assam-NRC, Bangla Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the saffron party of being “anti-Bengali”.

Taking a swipe at the BJP, the Trinamool Congress chief asked if hilsa fish, Jamdani saree, sandesh and mishti doi, which are originally from East Bengal ( in undivided India), would also be branded as “infiltrators or refugees”.

Asserting that these 40 lakh people are “very much Indians”, she questioned the criteria on which they have been excluded.

The CM has been attacking the BJP government at the Centre over National Register for Citizens (NRC) which has excluded names of over 40 lakh citizens in the final draft for want of necessary documents in Assam.

“What is going on in the country is injustice. The BJP with their extremist ideology is trying to create division among the people. I think they are playing the politics of revenge among the countrymen. We are not for this kind of politics,” she said.

She accused the BJP of being “anti-Bengalis” and “anti-Bangla”.

They (the BJP) must not forget that speaking Bengali is not a crime. It is the fifth most spoken language in the world. What is BJP’s problem with Bangla? Are they scared of the intellect of the Bengalis, their culture. They must not forget that Bangla is the cultural mecca of the country,” she said.

IT infrastructure in Bangla growing at rapid pace

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From May 2011, an amount of more than Rs 600 crore has been invested by the Trinamool Congress Government in the creation of physical infrastructure in the IT and electronics sector. This includes creation of IT parks and hardware parks, facilities for equipment manufacturing clusters (EMC), etc. The Information Technology & Electronics (IT&E) Department is overseeing all of these.

Hardware park and EMCs: Two electronics manufacturing clusters are coming up in Naihati and Falta. Construction is on in full swing. A hardware park in Sonarpur is complete. An IT park in Kalyani has been planned.

Start-up Warehouse: The State Government established a Start-up Warehouse in 2015 in collaboration with NASSCOM for the benefit of new ventures and start-ups in the IT/ITeS sector. Fifty-one companies have been promoted from the centre so far. Nineteen companies have received funding from private investors and nine companies have received their second round of funding.

Capacity building and self-employment: The IT&E Department, through the training wing of Webel, is imparting IT training in the districts and in tier-II/III-level towns in an organised way. Almost 1.5 lakh students were trained and 30,000 students got employment or achieved self-employment from 2011 to 17, compared to about 74,000 students trained and 11,000 students employed/self-employed during the period of 2004-11.

Cyber Security Centre of Excellence: The Cyber Security Centre of Excellence has been inaugurated by the department and is operational from November 2017. The portal for the same was launched in March 2018. The centre is working on five verticals: capacity building and awareness generation, cyber security assurance, Security Operation Centre, cyber forensics and investigation, and research and development (R&D) and Advisory.

Promotion of emerging technologies: The IT&E Department has been holistically promoting the emerging technologies – the technologies that are going to have a significant impact in the near future. The department has already started working on cyber security, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, animation, IoT (internt of things), Industry 4.0 (a standard), analytics, animation and e-sports. Summits are being held every month on different emerging technologies. Already summits on cyber security, blockchain and artificial intelligence have taken place.

Silicon Valley Asia: The Government is setting up a cutting-edge IT and hardware technology research and manufacturing hub at New Town called Silicon Valley Asia, on the lines of Silicon Valley in California, USA.

Capacity expansion by private companies: Several of the top IT companies in India have opened new campuses and expanded existing ones, or are in the process of doing those. More and more IT companies are showing interest in opening offices and campuses in Bengal.

Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Kalyani: The fi­rst IIIT of Bengal was started in 2014. The first batch of BTech came out in 2018.

Reaching destinations beyond Kolkata and Salt Lake: Twenty-five IT parks in tier-II and tier-III cities in different districts are either operational or at different stages of completion – 12 are fully operational, four are almost completed and nine have received sanction for construction.

Thus we see that the State Government is continuously developing infrastructure for different aspects of the information technology industry. The Government has big plans for making Bengal an IT powerhouse.

অমিত শাহ, ক্ষমা চান, নয়তো আইনি প্রক্রিয়া শুরু করা হবেঃ তৃণমূল কংগ্রেস

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আজ কলকাতায় বিজেপির সভাপতি অমিত শাহ এক জনসভা করেন। সেই সভায় অমিত শাহ রাজ্য সরকারের ওপর ভিত্তিহীন অভিযোগ আনেন। তার প্রতিবাদে তৃণমূল কংগ্রেসের পক্ষ থেকে সাংবাদিকদের মুখোমুখি হন, তৃণমূল কংগ্রেসের সর্বভারতীয় মুখপাত্র ডেরেক ও’ব্রায়েন।

তিনি বলেন, “অমিত শাহ আজকে বাংলাকে অপমান করেছেন, বাংলাকে অসম্মান করেছেন। বাংলার সভ্যতা, বাংলার শুদ্ধ সূচী, সুস্থ রুচি উনি বোঝেন না। এসব ওনাকে কি বোঝাব? বাংলার যে একটা সংস্কৃতি আছে, উনি সেটাকে অপমান করেছেন। তিনি ডাহা মিথ্যে দুর্নীতির কথা বলেছেন। উনি যদি ৭২ ঘণ্টার মধ্যে ক্ষমা না চান, অবশ্যই আমরা আইনি ব্যবস্থা নেব। সভ্যতার একটা সীমা থাকে, সম্মানের একটা সীমা থাকে। সেই সীমা অমিত শাহ আজ অতিক্রম করেছেন। অমিত শাহ, আপনি আগে নিজের ইতিহাস দেখুন, হলফনামা দেখুন।”

ডেরেক ও’ব্রায়েন অমিত শাহের বিষয়ে আরও বলেন, “উনি দুর্নীতির ডাকাত, দাঙ্গার ডাকাত। এইসব ধরনের রাজনীতি আগে যেখানেই করে থাকুন না কেন, এই রাজনীতি বাংলায় চলবে না। একদিনের জন্য আসবেন, বাংলাকে অপমান করে পালিয়ে যাবেন। আমাদের কাছে যথেষ্ট প্রমাণ আছে। সোজা ভাবে তৃণমূলের পক্ষ থেকে বলা হচ্ছে, হয় ক্ষমা চান, আর যদি না চান, আমরা আইনি ব্যবস্থা নেব। ”

সাংবাদিকদের প্রশ্নের উত্তরে তিনি বলেন, “এটি একটি ফ্লপ শো ছিল। মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের নামে বাংলায় কোনও দুর্নীতির অভিযোগ আনলে, বাংলার মানুষ তা মেনে নেবে না। মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের বিশ্বাসযোগ্যতা, মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের প্রতি মানুষের আস্থা-ভরসা প্রশ্নাতীত। সেই মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের ওপর দুর্নীতির কাদা ছোঁড়ার চেষ্টা করা হয়েছে।”

রাষ্ট্রীয় নাগরিক পঞ্জীর (National Register of Citizens or, NRC) বিষয়ে সাংবাদিকদের প্রশ্নের উত্তরে তিনি বলেন, “এটা শুধু বাংলার বিষয় নয়, এটা পুরো দেশের নাগরিকদের নিরাপত্তার বিষয়। আমাদের রাষ্ট্রীয় নাগরিক পঞ্জীর বিষয়ে বক্তব্য পরিষ্কার, এটা বাংলার একার ব্যাপার না, এটা রাজস্থান, পাঞ্জাব, বিহার, আসামেরও বিষয়। গোর্খা, গরীব, প্রান্তিক মানুষ, বীর সেনা, জনপ্রতিনিধিদের, এমনকি প্রাক্তন রাষ্ট্রপতির পরিবারের মানুষদেরও ঐ তালিকা থেকে বাদ দেওয়া হয়েছে। ভারতীয় নাগরিক বাঁচাও, এটাই আমাদের স্লোগান। এটা কোনও সস্তার দাঙ্গা লাগানোর স্লোগান না। কোনও দাঙ্গার রাজনীতি বাংলায় চলবে না। আমরা আমাদের সীমার মধ্যে থেকে, শান্ত-নম্র ভাবে বলেছি, আমাদের বাংলার পারম্পরিক সংস্কৃতি আমরা ধর্ম-বর্ণ নির্বিশেষে মেনে চলি। আজ অমিত শাহ তাঁর সীমা ছাড়িয়েছেন।”

Roadshows to promote MSME Conclave

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As a curtain-raiser for the 2018 edition of the Synergy State MSME Conclave, which has become a prime attraction for investors and potential investors, and business owners in the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, the State MSME & Textiles Department held a roadshow at Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry on August 9.

The department is also conducting district-level meetings and roadshows as a precursor to the conclave.

The MSME Conclave will be held on August 20 and 21. It will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Over 5,000 MSMEs, besides experts from various fields will be attending.

The conclave will focus on lean manufacturing and rural entrepreneurship, and sensitise alternate bank financing routes like initial public offering (IPO).

MSMEs have been doing very well in Bengal, which has been appreciated through awards by the Central Government too. Bengal has the highest number of MSMEs in the country with 52,69,814 units, accounting for 11.62 per cent of the overall number. In 2017, the State recorded the biggest bank credit flow to the MSME sector in the last five years at US$15 billion.