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Fresh from a big elctoral success in the state panchayat election, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has a more difficult assignment on hand. On August 1, she will be meeting industry captains in Mumbai's World Trade Centre, to convince them to invest in Bengal.
According to sources, some of the confirmed participants are : JSW Steel CMD, Sajjan Jindal, ITC chairman Y C Deveswar, Harsh Neotia of Ambuja Neotia Group, Chanda Kochhar of ICICI.
Formal invitations from the state chief secretary Sanjay Mitra have been sent to about 65 industrialists and 25 bankers.
State government sources claimed, Mukesh Ambani is also expected to attend the meeting, to be addressed by Mamata Banerjee. A Reliance Industries spokesperson, however, could not confirm this. Incidentally, RIL is one of the bidders for Bengal government's shares in Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL).
Anil Agarwal of Vedanta group, another bidder for HPL, however, is in London for Vedanta's annual general meeting and will not be attending, company officials said.
In fact, according to state government officials, all top business leaders like Ambani brothers, Tata group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Wipro's Azim Premji, Infosys' Kris Gopalkrishnan have been invited. Besides, heads of all the leading public and private sector banks have also been invited. However, officials could not confirm, how many of them, would be attending the event.
It is not known whether Cyrus Mistry will be attending. In the wake of the Supreme Court's suggestion to Tata Motors to consider returning the disputed Singur land, the highlight of the meet can be Cyrus Mistry's presence, if he is present.
Chief secretary Sanjay Mitra, who is officially in-charge of the event, refused to comment on the matter when asked.
According to West Bengal Industry minister Partha Chatterjee some of the Kolkata-based industrialists like Sanjiv Goenka of RP Sanjiv Gonka group, Apeejay Surrendra Group Karan Paul and Managing Director of Patton Group of Companies Sanjay Budhia are also likely to attend the event in Mumbai.
Incidentally, unlike all previous investors meets so far organised by the Mamata Banerjee-government, where industry department was at the forefront, Banerjee has asked state finance minister and former secretary-general of FICCI Amit Mitra to coordinate the event. In fact, its earlier business meets in Kolkata and Haldia were a no-show from the biggies from India Inc.
However, both Mitra and Chatterjee would be sharing the dias with chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the event. Besides, state urban development minister Firhad Hakim, TMC spokesperson Derek O' Brien, chief secretary Sanjay Mitra and secretaries of all the key government departments are expected to be present.
This will be the second such investors' meet outside the state to be organised by the Mamata Banerjee government. Earlier last December, Banerjee addressed a similar gathering of industrialists. Though many industry leaders attended her investment pitch, the state hardly received any big-ticket investment proposal since then.
