Decline of Industries In West Bengal

2008 will always remain fixed as a black chapter in Bengal’s industrial history. Ratan Tata moved Nano small car project out of the State after prolonged violent protests by local farmers .

With Tata’s decision, West Bengal’s dream of economic revival came crashing down.

Tatas then moved the 1500 crore project to Sanand Gujarat.

This anti industry image was created since the time left ruled the state. Even the IT industry was first coming to kolkata , but then it moved to bangalore. Because jyoti basu found this to be something that will eat human jobs.

Its all about mindset.

Mamta banerjee also did the same by diverting the nano project.

To clean this image Mamata Banerjee started annual investors’ summit aimed at showcasing the opportunities and possibilities of investment in West Bengal
, but it was not that successful.

If we talk about SEZs.. till October 2020, West Bengal had just seven of the 240 operational SEZ in the country. Compared to Bengal, Tamil Nadu had 46 SEZs while Maharashtra and Karnataka had 37 and 34 SEZs, respectively. Of the seven SEZs, five including ones in Rajarhat and New Town are dedicated for Information Technology (IT) & IT enabled services.

If we talk about startups, as of March 1, 2020, Bengal had just 839 recognised startups of the all-India total of 28,979 i.e, just around 2.9% of the total startups existing in the country. In comparison, Maharashtra had 5,477 startups, while Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh had 4,206, 3,740 and 2,342 startups, respectively, according to the government’s written reply in the Lok Sabha in March 2020.

According to the Annual Survey of Industries —the most important source of industrial statistics of the registered organised manufacturing sector of the economy — in FY 2012, West Bengal had a total of 8,402 factories of which 7,407 were in operation. By FY 2019, the State added 1,018 units, thereby raising the total number to 9,420 units i.e, a growth rate of 12.12%, slightly above the national growth average of 11.42%.

However, the number of factories in other States like Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Assam and Odisha grew at a much faster pace. Haryana Gurugram with a growth of 92.69%, in the same period, almost doubled the number of factories inside its borders from 6,142 units in FY12 to 11,835 units in FY19. Lesser developed Assam added 66.28% more number of factories while factories in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Karnataka grew by 44.66%, 20.80% and 20.32%, respectively.

In 2018-19, at 703 kWh, per capita electricity consumption in the State was much below the national average of 1181 kWh, according to data provided by the Central Electricity Authority.

Compared to Bengal, neighboring Odisha had per capita power consumption of 1,628 kWh, Tamil Nadu 1,866 kWh, Karnataka 1,396 kWh, and Gujarat 2,378 kWh.