Tag: crore

IT sector in Bangla: Improving in leaps and bounds

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The information technology sector in Bangla has progressed in leaps and bounds under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The Trinamool Congress Government has created a favourable environment for the growth of the sector and its related industries in Bangla.

This is evident from a comparison of the achievements of the Information Technology & Electronics Department in 2010-11, which was the last year of the Left Front rule, and 2017-18:

· Plan Budget of the department: More than doubled, from Rs 93.7 crore to Rs 201.53 crore, signifying an increased focus on the information technology and electronics sector;
· Software export turnover: Grew by almost 2.5 times, from Rs 8,500 crore to Rs 21,000 crore. Bangla is thus gradually turning into a hotbed of cutting-edge technology;
· Employment in IT sector: Significant rise from 90,000 to 1.5 lakh, ushering in a tech-savvy generation
· Investment for creation of IT hardware clusters: Nil earlier to Rs 14.86 crore; thus, the State Government, for the first time, under the direction of Trinamool Congress, is focussing on the creation of hardware clusters
· Investment for creation of IT parks: Grew by more than 16 times, from Rs 37.18 crore to Rs 612.11 crore, thus bringing about an unprecedented focus on infrastructure creation – 15 IT parks have been completed and 10 more are under construction.

Under the direction of Mamata Banerjee, the department is bringing about an all-round development, opening numerous employment opportunities, both in software and hardware.

West Bengal’s debt repayment burden to multiply: Amit Mitra

Posted on | by admin2 | Leave a Comment on West Bengal’s debt repayment burden to multiply: Amit Mitra

West Bengal’s annual debt repayment burden would grow sharply in coming years as maturity dates of the loans taken by the previous Left Front government were drawing closer, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra said.

Replying during the Question Hour in the Assembly, Mitra said during 2015-16, the debt repayment amount would be Rs 8,877 crore, which is set to rise to Rs 9,781 crore in the next financial year.

In 2017-18, the amount would multiply to reach Rs 18,359 crore which, he said, would be a great burden on the state, Mitra said. According to him, this will happen as ten, 12 and 15 years loan were going to mature.

Mitra said that the state government was making provisions towards this and also by sticking to fiscal and revenue discipline. He said that one silver lining was that the state GDP was rising at a rapid pace while the debt/GSDP ratio was falling.

Attacking the Left Front, Mitra said that the loan burden as on March, 2015 as per revised estimates was Rs 2.74 lakh crore. When the Trinamool Congress came to power in May, 2011, the inherited debt was close to Rs 2 lakh crore.

In the first four years of TMC rule, the debt increased by Rs 82,946 crore, out of which Rs 76,346 crore were spent towards interest and principal repayment.

During the four years from 2011, the ruling government had borrowed only Rs 6,617 crore which was used for its own spending, Mitra said.

Pointing out that West Bengal was caught in a debt trap, Mitra said that he and the chief minister have discussed the matter with the UPA government and the present NDA government for amortisation of the debt repayment schedule, but there was no positive outcome from either of them.

The UPA government offered $10 billion to the IMF for tackling the Eurozone crisis, but ignored the cry of a federal state which was in deep distress, he regretted. He also accused the Left Front of breaching the borrowing limit under FRBM Act.