Bengal Leads: Another Gala Show, but will result be different?

Earlier it was ‘Destination West Bengal’ at Roychak near Haldia, after which Chief Minister Jyoti Basu adopted Liberalisation-Privatisation-Globalisation policy in 1994. After his retirement, the baton went to Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and he rechristened it as ‘Resurgent Bengal’ at Durgapur. All the meets were basically to woo the ‘Big-Ticket investors’ who finally landed in Tata Nano project and Indonesian Salim’s Chemical hub project at Nandigram through his frontman Prasun Mukherjee. Everyone knows the final outcome of those drives and still Bengal is considered backward in terms of modern industrial growth.

Now the baton is with Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress, who spearheaded the valiant movements against Tata Nano project and Chemical hub project at Nandigram. She has retained the ‘Resurgent Bengal’ tag as ‘project’ but named the meet as ‘Bengal Leads’. However, the basic motto of judging the proposed list of investors remains the same — to woo the big tickets. All the chief ministers focussed on the massive unemployment which is primarily the basic need for such meets. All the former chief ministers have claimed success in the efforts of bringing huge investments and also claimed that many industries have already started production. Yet, Bengal reels in the bottom side of the list in terms of industrial output.

The repackaging of the Big Tickets’ summit is likely to be attended by as many as 120 industrial or corporate houses across the country. They will be a part of about 400 industrial houses of the nation attending the 6-day long extravaganza. Again, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) is focusing on Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Jindals, Mahindras and alikes. A group of senate members from USA shall visit to meet the Chief Minister.

According to WBIDC sources, S K Birla, Yogi Deveshwar of ITC Ltd, Atul Punj of Punj Group, Mallika Srinivasan of Tractors India Ltd, Prasun Mukherjee of Universal Success, Rajiv Singh, Rajiv Kaul, Harsh Neotia are certain to attend. Moreover, numbers of IT companies are also likely to open their shops at the fest going to be held at Milan Mela ground on E M Bypass opposite Science City. Being optimistic about the meet, Industry Minister of the state, Partha Chatterjee said, “I am sure many of them will come. The Ambanis have sounded very positive.”

The Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “The Government of West Bengal is organising, for the first time an exhibition cum business summit - Bengal Leads 2012, where the State will exhibit its areas of strength and opportunities in varied sectors and facilitate interaction amongst all stakeholders. West Bengal is endowed with natural resources and with its rich human capital and our entire combined endeavour, we are confident to take the State forward in all sectors of the economy.”

The summit will feature seminars, discussions, exhibitions, interactions where West Bengal will be focused as the ultimate destination for the investors”, said Nandini Chakrabarty, the MD of WBIDC. The fair ground is decorated to a near-new look with bright colours and sparkling lights.

She said the present government has already implemented Single Window system and minimized the application kit from 99 pages to simple 9 pages and processing period is reduced from 315 days to 45 days.
All these talks and exhibitions will draw huge visitors. 30 Hotels, booked for the show, will earn good amount of premium. A good part of government money will be spent to ‘showcase Bengal’. But, will the neat result be different by approaching the same path is the million dollar question.