West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra is in Mumbai to get the big boys of India Inc. and big-ticket investments to promote the ‘Bengal Growth Business Summit’ 2016 starting January 8, 2016.
The Tatas, Birlas and the Ambanis have so far given the annual event a miss even as they are regular at the ‘Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Meet’.
Asked about industrialists to be present during the summit, Mr Mitra said, “Wait and see for yourself. All I can assure you is that we will surpass last year’s investment commitments of Rs 2.43 lakh crore. Besides India Inc, you will see a lot of interest from foreign investors. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to do the ground-breaking ceremony for the JSW cement plant on January 6.”
The theme for this year’s summit will be start-ups, design, intelligent cities, IT/ITes, financial hub, industrial infrastructure, skill and services and cluster leadership for the MSME sector.
“Investments to the tune of Rs 2,500 crore in four big new cement plants by Reliance Group, JSW Group, Emani Group and Dalmia Group are being made in Bengal,” he said, adding that TCS was hiring 20,000 more employees, Cognizant 5,000 and Wipro 3,000 in Bengal.
The summit will put the spotlight on the State’s capability to address greater business challenges.
Asked about India Inc. announcing billions at investor summits, a leading industrialist with roots in West Bengal said, “Today, how many firms actually making investments? Very few; Reliance Industries and be one or two in Gujarat. Rs 2 lakh crore is the minimum investment commitment. May be those are real ones. Once I was asked by a State to announce an investment. It was embarrassing as we could not announce it as we were in the initial stage. At the conference, they announced my name as the next speaker and I was missing. We don’t go to these jamborees for this reason.”
