West Bengal must place greater emphasis on Micro and Small units and Sunrise sectors

The Government of West Bengal (WB) held a Business & Industry Conclave on December 18.

- By Kishore Kumar Biswas

This was a relatively new format, as state-based organisations were invited to present the status of their investments and business activities. The conclave also featured multilateral round table discussions involving business leaders and government representatives. A representative from the World Bank and a few foreign investors currently operating in the state were also present. Compared to the Global Business Summits organised by the state in earlier years, this conclave was modest in scale, with less emphasis on spectacle and glamour. In the larger summits, most of the country's leading industrialists and many foreign business leaders participate to assess the state’s business climate. Several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) are signed for prospective investments. However, it is widely debated that such high-profile summits often involve substantial expenditure, while only a small proportion of the MoUs eventually translate into actual investments. At the same time, one must consider the present context, where private capital formation and private investment are already subdued across India. Even in more developed states, realised investments constitute only a small fraction of the proposals announced at business summits. Against this backdrop, the recent Business Conclave appears to be a more effective and grounded initiative.