Buddha to seek Amartya's advice on slump

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the chief minister of the West Bengal, said here today that he will be seeking the advice of economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen on of how india could tackle the current economic turmoil.

Speaking on the inaugural session of the 22nd Industrial India Trade Fair (IITF), Bhattacharya said, "We are in a grave economic crisis and developed countries of US and economies of EU are in doldrums and nobody knows when the situation will stabilise. I have already spoken to the governor of RBI, when he was here and I now have sought the appointment of Amartya Sen, who is in Kolkata, to discuss and seek his observations of how to get out of this situation." The Prime Minister has already announced several initiatives and measures to handle the crisis and hopefully these measures will ease the problems, but all state governments and business houses should come forward together to tackle the crisis, advised Bhattacharya.

Around 700 companies has stalls at the fair, and teams from eight foreign countries were present. The aim of the fair was to promote the small and medium enterprises and also to host business meetings and discussions on how to promote business in line with the central government’s 'look east' policy. Indian Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), the apex fair organising authority in the country, would be approaching various countries for the possibility of holding Indian trade fairs to showcase sectors like the information technology (IT), chemicals and petrochemicals in those countries. ITPO would hold fairs in Chili and Peru in March, in Kazakhsthan in May and St Petersburgh in September 2009. Sheela Bhinde, chairman and managing director of ITPO, said, "We are looking at the possibilities of holding such trade fairs overseas as well in countries like Chili, Peru and Kazakhsthan and St Petersberg to explore other economies which have a good potential." Trade fairs might also be held in Turkey and Dubai. ITPO can hold two to three fairs in a year, added Bhinde.