West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced a slew of new policies including plans to double the state's exports, modernise its logistics and promote renewable energy manufacturing, while inaugurating the seventh Bengal Global Business Summit (Pics/PTI)
Updated On: 2023-11-21 07:11 PM IST
Compiled by : ronak mastakar
Banerjee also announced a policy to promote bio-fuels and a new sub-sea cable landing station at the sea-resort of Digha to help improve internet connectivity in the eastern region
The chief minister also said the state's economy was growing at 8.41 per cent and its GDP would touch USD 212 billion this fiscal. West Bengal was ranked sixth in terms of GDP among Indian states in a recent report by Forbes India
She also told a star-studded gathering of business leaders including petro-chemicals to retail tycoon Mukesh Ambani, energy baron Sanjeev Goenka and Wipro's Rishad Premji, that four new industrial corridors would be set up including Dankuni-Kalyani, Tajpur port-Raghunathpur, Dankuni-Jhargram and Durgapur to Cooch Behar in north Bengal
Dankuni, eastern India's largest logistics hub, already boasts of 9 km of conveyor belts to carry goods to and from storage silos, added her former finance minister and principal chief advisor Amit Mitra
The Bengal Global Business Summit, an annual affair, is being attended by several hundred companies from 35 countries, including UK, US, Australia, Korea, Japan, Germany and France
Lashing out at the BJP-ruled Union government, she said, "I am sorry to say that the state is not getting any financial support from the Centre. We are not getting our share of GST and wages under MGNREGA scheme have been stopped"
"But I am in favour of peace and happiness. Some people ask me which 'ism' do I follow. I tell them that I am neither in favour of Rightism nor Leftism. I believe in humanism," she said
Highlighting the fact that the state was home to some 90 lakh MSME units employing 1.3 crore people, Banerjee pointed out that it also housed a large leather manufacturing complex which was being expanded to be the Asian continent's biggest, besides boasting of one of the largest IT hubs in the country