Projecting West Bengal as the "human capital of the world", Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has called on British businesses to invest in the state, assuring them that "backlogs and red tape are gone".
"If you say London is the (financial) capital of the world, I say Bengal is the human capital of the world," she said in her address at the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) last evening.
In reference to the progress made by the Trinamool Congress government over the last four years in the state, Mamata said, "If there is a vision, there is a mission...(otherwise) there will be no action plan also."
Banerjee's five-day visit to the UK has been downscaled considerably as a result of the seven-day state mourning declared in memory of former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, who passed away yesterday.
A lunch meeting for all visiting and other UK-based business delegates at Taj St James Hotel in central London today was cancelled.
A gala Bengal-themed cultural evening planned at the Natural History Museum in London this evening had been modified into a "creative musical homage" in memory of Dr Kalam but later that was also cancelled as no official musical events are allowed during a state mourning period.
A reception to be hosted by the Indian High Commissioner to the UK Ranjan Mathai in honour of the Bengal Chief Minister and her 62-member delegation tomorrow evening has also been cancelled.
Floral tributes to Rabindranath Tagore, at his statue in Gordon Square in central London, and Mahatma Gandhi's statue at Parliament Square and a closed-door business meeting at Asia House were the only events to go ahead during the visit.
