by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Economy, Emerging Businesses, Events, News, Politics
Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the state will announce the new IT policy in January 2018 during the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS).
“We have decided that we will be announcing our new IT policy in the upcoming BGBS meet which will take place in January,” she said while addressing INFOCOM 2017.
She also said the state is ready to give more importance to the IT industry and is keen to provide various sops in terms of property tax relief and other subsidies.
Taking a dig at the Left Front government which ruled the state for 34 years, for not giving a boost to the IT sector, she said: “Earlier, the state government was not interested for this particular sector. I do not know why? But we started thinking. IT companies are now expanding their businesses here.”
There is enough space available in the state for the IT sector which can potentially create 2.6 lakh jobs by using this space, she said, adding that apart from the state capital, space is available in IT parks in various cities like Siliguri, Burdwan and Kalyani.
She claimed that the state is the “pioneer” of the digitisation programme and especially in digital transformation which enabled the state government to double its revenue.
Inviting industry captains from IT and ITes to invest in the state, she said the attrition rate in Bengal was considerably low at about three per cent as compared to other states.
She urged industries to invest in the state as it is “strategically, geographically and politically safe”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Sirshendu Panth,
Kolkata : Keeping up a strong anti-BJP rhetoric, West Bengal’s indefatigable ‘Didi’ gunned for Prime Minister Narendra Modi through the year, lacing her speeches and social media postings with sarcasm and choice words as her government clashed with the Centre on various issues.
From mythology to ancient Indian history, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee left nothing untouched in letting loose incessant verbal volleys at Modi, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued to increase its vote-share in various by-polls and local body elections in West Bengal.
As the BJP tried to emerge as a viable alternative to the Trinamool, Banerjee in turn endeavoured to project herself as the most prominent opponent of the Hindutva brigade nationally.
The feisty leader networked with regional leaders opposed to the Sangh Parivar — the ideological parent of the BJP as well as several right-wing outfits — and formulated decisions and actions that could give her brownie points over the central dispensation and its propelling force.
She fired on all cylinders, targeting Modi’s key policies like demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST) while trying to exploit burning issues like sliding economic growth, rampant intolerance, the beef ban and cow vigilantism.
However, it was her colourful and strident attacks on Modi that grabbed the spotlight.
If she likened Modi to the greatest Sanskrit poet and dramatist Kalidasa, it was not because of the writer’s literary prowess but only a reference to an oft-told story of him “lacking intelligence as a youngster — cutting the branch he was sitting on”.
“All institutions (of the nation) are under attack. This is a dangerous game. The PM is behaving like Kalidasa, trying to cut the branch he is sitting on,” Banerjee remarked.
During another aggressive speech, Banerjee drew a parallel between Modi and demon king Ravana of the Ramayana epic.
“He claims that he has broad chest and shoulders. Even Ravana had broad shoulders. And he also had 10 heads,” she said, alluding to Modi’s drumbeating that he has a “56-inch chest”.
On another occasion, she predicted that “Barda” (elder brother) will have to bow out of office after the 2019 parliamentary polls.
Addressing a public meeting in Bankura district, Banerjee raised the pitch further, dubbing the Modi government “deaf and dumb”. But a separate barb was reserved for the Prime Minister.
“He used to call himself a ‘chaiwala’ (tea seller) before. Now he has become a millionaire ‘Paytm-wala’ (one who endorses e-wallets like Paytm).”
Demonetisation, to her, was Modi’s “shameless flop show” that she dismissed on Twitter as “visionless, missionless and directionless”.
Not in a mood to let go of any democratic mode of protest, she even knocked on the door of then President Pranab Mukherjee, urging him to “save the country from the mess” and sought a “national government” minus Modi. Banerjee was ready to accept another BJP leader at its helm and went to the extent of naming L.K. Advani, Rajnath Singh and Arun Jaitley as being acceptable.
While backing GST, Banerjee took the Modi government to task for rolling out the new regime with “disastrous hurry” on July 1. She called the step “another epic blunder” of the Centre.
The CBI probes into the multi-billion-rupee Saradha Ponzi scam, Rose Valley Ponzi scam and Narada sting footage controversy — in which a number of Trinamool leaders were implicated — were also bones of contention between the Trinamool and the BJP.
While Banerjee accused the central agencies of acting out of “political vendetta” on the BJP’s directions, the saffron party said it was an inquiry ordered by the Supreme Court.
Going ballistic, Banerjee threatened to slap defamation cases worth crores of rupees if the CBI did not proceed impartially.
The political battles between the Trinamool regime and the Centre even stretched to observance of red letter dates like Independence Day and Teachers Day.
When the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) sent a circular to the states recommending a structured format promoting Modi’s pet “Swachh Bharat Mission” during Teachers’ Day celebrations in schools, the Mamata government shot off a counter-circular to schools saying the date needed to be observed with due reverence and solemnity as in “earlier years”.
Ahead of Independence Day, the MHRD had issued a circular specifying “additional activities”. But the state government came up with a directive asking the schools to “stop all preparations” for celebrating the day in the MHRD format.
With the Congress weakening, Banerjee kept herself busy attempting to strengthen ties throughout 2017 with prominent political leaders in the anti-BJP domain, particularly those from the regional parties.
She has been following many of them on Twitter, or exchanging pleasantries through tweets with the likes of ex-Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, senior Jammu and Kashmir National Conference leaders Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah, BSP chief Mayawati and DMK leader M.K. Stalin. She even met Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray, a BJP baiter despite being an ally, though her party’s views on religion and secularism were diametrically opposed to those of the Sena.
Though Banerjee has stressed on “collective leadership” to challenge Modi, she gave enough hints at a media conclave last month that she is not averse to taking the lead in bringing together opposition parties on a single platform against the BJP in 2019.
(Sirshendu Panth can be contacted at s.panth@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
(Credit: scroll.in)
Kolkata : The leaders of an anti-power grid movement in West Bengal’s Bhangar have urged the state government to “open a dialogue and allow democracy to prevail” in the area.
They had accused the Mamata Banerjee government of trying to throttle their movement by “using bombs, bullets, terror and false cases”. The agitators said the government should instead come to the discussion table to “soothe the situation”.
Blaming the ruling Trinamool Congress for Thursday’s clash during a rally by the Jami, Jibika, Poribesh O Bastutantra Rakha Committee — a platform for villagers backed by Naxalite outfit CPI(ML) Red Star –, their leader Sarmistha Chowdhury said the attack was conducted to “intimidate and obstruct” an upcoming rally in Kolkata.
“The attack on the rally was conducted to intimidate the movement and create unrest in the area by killing and injuring the protesters. We condemn the attack.
“If the state government thinks that they would throttle the land movement using bombs, bullets, terror and false cases, they should think twice,” Chowdhury said on Friday.
“The state government must come to the discussion table with the agitators if they want to pacify the heated situation in Bhangar. Otherwise it must also refrain from attacking the movement. Democracy should prevail. The people would show what they want and whom they want in Bhangar,” she said.
Chowdhury said that even though the pictures of the Trinamool Congress backed goons who attacked Thursday’s rally, went viral on social media, the party leadership claimed that no one from their party was involved in the attack. “No police action has been taken against these attackers either.”
Chowdhury, who was arrested back in January in the wake of violence centering the construction of power grid sub-station in Bhangar, also alleged that the state government did not follow regulations
“There should be no construction within 23 metres on both sides of the transmission lines. This has not been followed. We have given a deputation to the central Power Ministry about the non compliance. They have assured that they would take up the issue,” she said.
She said the Committee that has been leading the movement for almost a year in Bhangar, would participate in the next Panchayat elections there. However, whether it would back candidates of any political party or nominate its own candidates, was yet to be decided.
Claiming that they were in touch with other land stirs happening in Bengal and rest of the country, Chowdhury warned of a larger movement and said common people would come out victorious in the end.
“There are land agitations in different parts of Bengal. We want to bring these movements together. The anti power grid movements in Assam and Maharashtra have already got in touch with the leaders of anti power grid movement in Bhangar,” she added.
Human rights activist Sujato Bhadra, who has been associated with the movement since its inception, claimed multiple false cases have been slapped against everyone associated with the land movement which was not seen during the previous land movements of Singur and Nandigram under the erstwhile Left Front government.
“People associated with the movement have been charged with false cases under severe sections like UAPA and the land movement has been branded a Maoist movement by the government.
“On the other hand, Trinamool Congress backed miscreants have been let loose to terrorise the villagers and agitators,” Bhadra said.
“It is surprising that a government that came to power riding on mass movements is showing so much disrespect to a land movement during its rule. It is a sign of their low culture,” he added.
Several people were injured and vehicles set ablaze as clashes broke out between a group of protesters and Trinamool Congress activists in Bhangar on Thursday.
The place had witnessed protests against the alleged forcible land acquisition for the power project turn violent, resulting in the deaths of two persons.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Politics, Technology
Ram Nath Kovind
Kolkata : Observing that West Bengal was a “slow starter” in IT, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday urged it to grab the opportunities presented by digital explosion and replicate the past successes of its famous scientific entrepreneurs.
“Bengal was a slow starter in Information Technology and IT-Enabled Services. Now it has another chance,” Kovind told the closing ceremony celebrations of the Bose Institute here.
“We are in the midst of an explosion of digital technologies. Precision manufacture and bioinformatics are changing how we work and robotics as to how we live. All this throws up opportunities for Bengal.”
Referring to Bengal’s pioneering scientists and technocrats who were among the country’s earliest scientific entrepreneurs, the President said the magic of the synthesis achieved by them needed to be recreated.
In this context, Kovind mentioned Acharya P.C. Ray, who established the first Indian-owned pharmaceutical company, Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd.
He also referred to the engineer father-son pair Rajendra Nath Mookerjee and Biren Mookerjee who established the Indian Iron and Steel Co in Burnpur as well as technologist and academic of Bengali descent Amar Bose, founder of Bose Corp in the US.
“Clearly, when Bengali scientists and technologists turn entrepreneurs, they can be very, very successful. We need to bring back the magic of that synthesis.”
Lauding the Bose Institute, Kovind said it had been inspired by a sense of nation-building through its hundred years.
“It has served the cause of science and the cause of India… Bose Institute occupies a unique and exalted position in the landscape of Indian science. This was one of the earliest scientific institutes to be established in the country,” Kovind said.
He paid glowing tributes to the institute’s founder Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose.
Calling Bose a “true pioneer of Indian science” and an innovator and world-class scientist, Kovind said he had laid the foundation for revolutionary technologies like the modern wireless communication and demonstrated wireless transmission of microwaves as far back as 1895.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Economy, Large Enterprise, News, Politics
Mamata Banerjee
Kolkata : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said the state, which has been facing legacy issues in terms of ease of doing business, has fulfilled 336 parametres out of the 372.
The remaining 36 parametres would be met in the next few months, she said addressing the Horasis Asia Meeting.
The state currently is in the top 10 in the ease of doing business ranking and she assured that it would emerge as the number one in the ranking soon.
She also said: “It takes time (to improve the ranking) and we are facing some legacy issues.”
—IANS
