The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCC&I) organized one of its most appropriately timed programme- Bengal Economic e-Conclave on 25th June 2021 on virtual platform. 

The theme of the Conclave was “Bengal after Election 2021: What Lies beneath- What lies ahead”. 

The Conclave was curated to bring together Sectoral Experts, Leading Economists, Thought Leaders, Policy Makers, Captains of Industry and Educationist to disseminate robust knowledge on: 

• Transforming education, skills, employability in Bengal
• Enabling innovation and entrepreneurship in Bengal
• Industrialization and trade development of Bengal
• Manufacturing and industrial transformation in Bengal
• Public policy and socio-economic development framework in Bengal 

The Inaugural Session was commenced with the formal Opening Remarks by Mr. Deb A Mukherjee, President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Session featured a Panel Discussion on “Bengal after Election 2021: What Lies beneath- What lies ahead”. The Panelists included-Dr. Indira Rajaraman, Former Member of The Thirteenth Finance Commission; Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Managing Director, Tata Metaliks Limited and Mr. Ajit Ranade, Group Executive President and Chief Economist, Aditya Birla Group. Shri Sumit Bose, Chairman- Economic Affairs Committee, BCC&I and Former Finance & Revenue Secretary, Government of India moderated the Session. Dr. Rajaraman highlighted that the State Government should strive for the statutory grants made available to the local bodies and the state by the 15th finance commission, i.e., Rs.4.36 trillion (2021-26), out of which 82% i.e., Rs. 3.58 trillion is directly disbursable to the local bodies (RLBs & ULBs), and the rest 16% will flow through the State as primary health grants to build facilities at the local level in terms of diagnostic buildings, primary health centres, sub-centres etc. The primary health grant goes to the State to enhance primary health facilities in seven categories. West Bengal share is Rs. 4,402 Cr. The State & District level committees should have plans ready for implementation in each of the seven categories by July 2021, with a timeline of deliverables and outcomes for each of the five years. Dr. Rajaraman also mentioned that there is a need for an interactive interstate portal for the Ministers, Department Secretaries to immediately communicate with other States while handling emergencies or any other issues which could bring about a revolution in better Governance. Dr. Ranade stated that Bengal has access to the ocean and Southeast Asia. A combination of the agricultural exports and the conventional sectors of textile, leather, which are labour-intensive sectors, will address the problem of employment. We are waiting for the trade policy, which is expected to have strong support for export and RoDTEP (Remission of taxes and duties on Export Products). This can be a significant driver of growth for Bengal. The CAGR of Bengal’s GDP growth is around 11%, twice that of India. The share of the State’s output has gone up by 2%. The share has also been maintained by the services sector. Dr. Ranade also mentioned that Exports are most promising, which makeup nearly 15% to 17% of the GDP and have interlinkage with manufacturing and services. That can potentially be the strong driver of growth, given that both the business and the consumer confidence are somewhat subdued. Vaccination drive is the immediate priority as of now.  There is an allocation of Rs.35,000 crores by the centre for this but the need is far greater to bring the economy in pace. If we can maintain the pace of vaccination in India, that will be a promising impact on the revival. 

Executive Track I: Panel Discussion on “Transforming education, skills and employability in Bengal” highlighted the perspectives on how education, skill development and employability can go hand-in-hand and be fostered in Bengal. The session was moderated by Mr. Somesh Dasgupta, Whole Time Director, India Power Corporation Limited & Chairperson, People Management Committee, BCC&I. The Panelists were: Prof. Dhrubajyoti Chattopadhyay, Vice-Chancellor, Sister Nivedita University, Newtown, Kolkata; Ms. Lakshmi Chandrasekharan, Managing Director - HR Lead, Accenture India; Prof. (Dr.) Sanjay Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, Amity University, Kolkata and Mr. Anindya Mitra, Director and Location Head, IBM. Ms. Chandrasekharan highlighted that 59% of millennials say that the opportunity to learn and grow is a deciding factor in their job selection. They value employability and want to know how the organization will help them to learn and grow in their career.  We have to find people with relevant skills, the right mindset in a democratic way. Number of people working from West Bengal in Accenture has increased because of place flexibility in this pandemic. The number of people working from West Bengal, not just Kolkata, but working from other cities like Siliguri and Asansol has gone up significantly during the pandemic because people have moved back home. Essential infrastructure like uninterrupted electricity, network connectivity, are going to be critical for people who are going to be working from remote areas to continue to contribute productively. 

Rapid Fire Chat Session with Mr. Abhijit Banerjee, Managing Director, Linde India Ltd. on “Manufacturing O2: Crisis and the Solution at present” was moderated by Mr. Indrajit Sen, Managing Director, International Combustion (India) Limited and Past President, BCC&I. Mr. Banerjee stated that the PSAs are not a panacea. They merely produce oxygen of a particular grade. The selection of PSAs is also important because many of them fail within three or four months. Besides they need a lot of maintenance. The authorities must take steps to enhance the liquid oxygen storage capacity. There are some regulatory hurdles, some obsolete safety requirements which limit the amount of liquid oxygen that can be stored in the hospital premises. Many hospitals cannot store liquid oxygen due to these old, obsolete requirements. There should be discussions with the authorities to get them up to date. Dr. Banerjee also mentioned that it was seen during the second wave of COVID-19 that, there is a timing gap of at least two to three weeks between the onset of the number of cases going up and the oxygen demand coming in. These two-three weeks are sufficient to start a supply chain of oxygen in those areas. There is a shortage due to unethical hoarding of oxygen. Some people are using this situation to their economic benefit through an excessive price hike. Ignorance among people and imprudent usage of oxygen is leading to wastage of oxygen. 

Mr. Kalyan Kar, Co-Founder InQube Group and Startup Evangelist & Mentor moderated Executive Track II – Panel Discussion on “Enabling innovation and entrepreneurship: Voice of Young Bengal”. The session was graced by Mr. Simarpreet Singh, Director, JIS Group and Mr. Suvankar Sen, Chief Executive Officer, Senco Gold Limited. The session brought in different perspectives on how innovation and entrepreneurship can be fostered in Bengal. 

Mr. R C Bhargava, IAS, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. addressed on “The Maruti Story: Lessons for the Revival of Manufacturing in Eastern India”. Dr. Shiladitya Chatterjee, Member, Economic Affairs Committee, BCC&I, and Former Member Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) moderated the Session. Mr. Bhargava highlighted that the State and its administration must create a low-cost environment for manufacturing. Lower costs will spur demand, which will, in turn, create employment and earnings for the government which can subsequently be used for social development. The Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme will not work if the overall issue of lack of competitiveness of the industry is not tackled.

Executive Track III – Panel Discussion on “Industry and Trade: Growth Trajectory of Bengal” was graced by Smt. Anindita Sen Gupta, Additional DGFT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry; Dr. Nagesh Kumar, Director, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development (ISID) and Mr. Ranjan Sarkar, President - HR, Exide Industries Ltd. Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta, Past President, BCC&I and Senior Partner, Intueri Consulting LLP moderated the Session. Smt. Sen Gupta highlighted that despite being the largest producer of vegetables, the State does not feature greatly in the export of vegetables. There are gaps between the capabilities, possibilities and actual execution. These gaps need to be plugged. Issues regarding multiple agencies that engage in export promotion, there are overlaps and sharing of responsibilities. State Export Promotion Committees (SEPC) at the state level and District Export Promotion Committees (DEPCs) - The idea of the committee is to help the districts identify products that have potential, the trade promotion councils will be a part of this. This will help to identify the products, markets, the finances involved. Information dissemination is the biggest challenge for MSMEs. Using the mechanism of district export hubs, having a proper plan and having on board the district authorities, GMDICs (General Manager, District Industries Centre), MSMEs & DGFT, a proper outreach can be done. Smt. Sen Gupta also stated that DGFT can play a crucial role in identifying products, district wise, infrastructure requirements, funding requirements and drawing up a district-wise plan and work towards that where the unrealized potentials of districts are likely to come up. FTA outreach programmes should be taken up at the policymaking levels to analyse the states relative strengths and weaknesses and understand the more enabling trade agreements, products, routes and countries. Dr. Nagesh Kumar stated that West Bengal needs to take advantage of Economics of Neighborhood and Economics of Geography. There exist some real opportunities for Bengal to capture and exploit and become a hub and become the gateway of India for regional economic cooperation as a part of India’s Act East policy. West Bengal can not only emerge as a hub of industry and trade but it can also actually become a hub of India’s Act East Policy. Benefits to the state’s economy would be huge. If all of India’s trade to Bangladesh, Myanmar and the rest of SE Asia and once the larger regional corridors become operational and all these large containers start moving across the borders on these regional corridors the transit revenue that would accrue to Bengal’s economy could be very substantial and wherever these transport corridors pass through they would generate economic activities around them. A comparative study/indicator on the Cost of Doing Trade across States is very much desirable and needs to be done so that the state Governments can take steps to improve the quality of infrastructure and the quality of logistics movement between States and between States and other neighbouring countries. This could be very useful.