Mamata Banerjee bets big on industry: West Bengal gets Rs 17,000 cr investment pledge from corporates

Kolkata: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said his company will invest Rs 5,000 crore in West Bengal in businesses such as petroleum and retail. RIL has already pumped in Rs 15,000 crore in the telecom business in the state although it had earlier committed to invest Rs 4,500 crore. The investment will be made over the next three years and also promote electronic industry by manufacturing mobile phones and set top boxes, Ambani said at the two-day Bengal Global Business Summit which began here. Several corporate houses on Tuesday came forward with big investment proposals for West Bengal and right at the start of “Bengal Global Business Summit” here an estimated Rs 17,000 crore worth of investments were pledged by top business houses. [caption id=“attachment_4063079” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] JSW Group’s chief Sajjan Jindal has pledged Rs 10,000 crore and the group, which inaugurated Rs 800-crore cement plant in West Midnapore district, has interests in setting up paint and speciality steel making units in the state. RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group’s Chairman Sanjiv Goenka announced a Rs 1,000 crore investment plan for Bengal and Adventz Group also expressed its intent to invest a like amount in the state. In an effort to move away from West Bengal’s “investor-wary” image and woo much-needed investments, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said its people would dedicate their hearts to Indian and foreign industrialists if they infused capital in the state. Inaugurating the two-day business summit, she also assured industrialists that there was “no pressure, discrimination or intimidation” in the state and that Bengal had only “love and affection” for them. “We love India and unity of India. We love tolerance.You must invest in Bengal. The state is attracting businesses from all over the world like never before. There is no pressure, discrimination, intimidation… only love, affection and attraction is here,” she said. She also assured her government would not spare even her party men if they created problems for investors and industrialists. “We have to protect them (industrialists and investors) and they are our assets,” she added. (Disclosure - Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd)