By Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, West Bengal is moving ahead and is performing better than several other states.
Speaking at the virtual Infocom-2020, a business-technology event organised by a private group, she stressed on inclusive growth. “We will have to wait for the vaccine (for Covid-19). There must be some long-term plan on how to survive. Need to focus on the right priorities and in inclusive growth rather than polarisation,” she said.
Bengal respects each and every one, the chief minister said and quoted Rabindranath Tagore’s famous poem “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high ….”.
She claimed that the state is number one in the SGDP (state gross domestic product) growth, self-governance, e-tendering, MSME, unorganised sector, steel manufacturing, eradication of poverty and ease of doing business. She claimed that the state has the largest self-governance structure and around 1,500 IT companies.
“Nearly 2.10 lakh IT professionals are working in the state, and the proposed Silicon Valley hub in New Town, which has an investment outlay of Rs 3,000 crore, will provide jobs to 9,000 more people. Expansion of IT companies such as Wipro and TCS will add to the number of jobs while 3,000 professionals will find employment opportunity at ITC Infotech whose project in New Town is almost complete. Wipro will invest Rs 500 crore more in the state. Cognizant will increase its work force,” said Banerjee.
“Reliance has taken land, while TCS will set up a new campus as many new investments are coming. So far 20 fresh proposals have been cleared there”, she added.
The initial allotment of 100 acres is full, another 100 acres are being given for the hub, she added.
TCS, which currently employs 44,000 professionals, will raise their hiring to 61,000 which will make it the largest in the country, she said.
The back office of HSBC employs 3000 people and the rural IT parks have an occupancy rate of 80 per cent, the chief minister said.
Infosys will also set up its design centre for which it has taken land in New Town, she said.
“Our talent need not go outside the state and move around the world to look for jobs. The state has 65 industrial parks, 520 clusters and an animation academy,” she added.
The chief minister said the fintech hub, also in New Town area, is occupied by banks such as the State Bank of India and other financial institutions.
According to her, major growth indices such as SGDP, plan expenditure, capital expenditure and social and physical infrastructure have shown remarkable improvement since May 2011 when the Trinamool Congress came to power
