Bengal’s new industrial policy to prioritise investments in sectors with strong demand for ancillary units

West Bengal plans to finalise a new industrial policy focusing on sectors with strong demand for ancillary industries, including textiles, steel, automotive, heavy electrical equipment, IT and electronics. The policy aims to attract investments, boost employment and promote MSME-linked support businesses

Kolkata: As the West Bengal government is all set to finalise its new industrial policy by this month, insiders from the state secretariat of Nabanna said that the priority in the proposed new industrial policy will be on sectors having strong demand for small support businesses, which are popularly and technically referred to as ancillary industries.

Accordingly, state secretariat insiders said that some of these sectors with strong demand for ancillary industries, both in the manufacturing and services sectors, have already been identified for being treated as a priority in the proposed new industrial policy.

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These sectors are textiles and garments, iron and steel, heavy electrical equipment, the automotive industry and information technology and electronics.

An important meeting to finalise the blueprint of the new policy for ‘land for industry’ has been convened at the state secretariat Nabanna on August 11, which will be chaired by the state Commerce and Industries Minister, Tapas Roy, where industrialists and representatives of industry associations have been invited to participate and give their suggestions in the matter.

“In the meeting, the state government will outline its plans for industrialisation and investment attraction with priority on sectors having strong demand for ancillary industries. Accordingly, suggestions will be sought from the industrialists and representatives from industry associations on how this plan could be implemented,” said a senior state government official aware of the development.

He added that the main reason to prioritise sectors with strong demand for ancillary industries is to promote investments with potential for higher employment generation, both directly in the main industrial unit as well as in small support businesses.

“At the same time, promoting investment in sectors with strong demand for support businesses will also ensure a parallel promotion of the micro, small and medium enterprises as ancillary to the main business units,” the state government officer said.

At the same time, he added, with focus on North Bengal, the proposed new industrial policy will also stress the Triple-T (tea, timber and tourism) sector.

“As claimed by the Chief Minister, Suvendu Adhikari, last week, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had assured all sorts of central assistance to revive the tea and textiles sector in the state. So accordingly, the target of the state government now is formulating a comprehensive industrial policy enabling big-ticket investments and higher employment generation at the same time,” the state government official added.

Industry observers feel that focusing on sectors with demand for ancillary industries is the right formula for enabling big-ticket investments and higher employment generation in one go.

“Such industries with high demand for ancillary industries promote both ‘direct support’ and ‘indirect support’ entrepreneurship. In fact, the sectors identified by the new statement as priority focus best suit the dual purpose of enabling big-ticket investments and higher employment generation in one go,” said a city-based industrial observer.