Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, on Tuesday announced an additional Rs 20,000-crore investment for West Bengal over the next three years. Ambani, who was delivering his spech at the Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) in Kolkata, said, fresh investment will be in the sectors of digital life solutions, retail, and bio-energy.
"We plan to invest an additional Rs 20,000 crore in Bengal in the next three years for enhancing digital life solutions, augmenting Reliance Retail footprint and on bio-energy," Ambani said. To date, the Reliance Industries has invested close to Rs 45,000 crore in the past few years in Bengal. "Reliance will leave no stone unturned to accelerate Bengal's growth," he asserted.
During his address, Ambani noted that the rate of growth of Bengal's GDP is 11.5 per cent, much higher than the national average. " Your tax revenue has trebled, and so have IT exports from the state," he said.
According to RIL CMD, Bengal's capital expenditure on agriculture and allied sectors have risen nearly seven times. "The number of medium and small industry clusters have gone up 10 times. Bengal is poised to become the logistics hub of the East, which will attract new domestic and international investments. In terms of the Cost of Doing Business, it's one of the lowest in India," he pointed out.
Full speech of Mukesh Ambani View Pdf
India is now racing ahead to become a $10-trillion economy by 2030. This will make India the third-largest economy of the world, Ambani said at the event, while adding that Bengal alone has the potential to become a trillion-dollar economy in the near future. "A prosperous Bengal will again become India's gateway to South-East and Far-East Asia."
The Rs 20,000-crore investment will be in three areas. As per Ambani, the investment will be targeted towards enhancing digital life solutions aimed at augmenting livelihoods in Bengal, and providing quality education, healthcare, and agricultural solutions at scale. "Jio is about to complete the world's fastest 5G rollout in India before the end of this year that is 2023. And we have covered most parts of Bengal."
Second, as said by Ambani, Reliance Retail too is fast increasing its footprint in the state. "Our network of nearly 1000 Retail stores will expand to over 1,200 within the next two years. Our retail business is supporting hundreds of MSMEs." And, third, is in the area of bio-energy. "Today every country and every corporate have a big responsibility to fight the Climate Crisis and save our Planet. To make the world a better place for our future generations, we must act now and transition speedily from fossil fuels to clean, green and renewable energy," he stated.
The Reliance Foundation will also take up the task of renovating and restoring the iconic Kalighat Temple in Kolkata to regain its "original glory," Ambani added.
Apart from Mukesh Ambani, the 7th edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit is expected to draw some of the top names such as Sanjiv Puri, chairman of ITC Ltd; Sajjan Jindal, chairman of JSW Group; Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP-SG Group; and Harshavardhan Neotia, chairman of Ambuja Neotia Group.