Date:29/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/29/stories/2008122955441100.htm

National

Amartya Sen to speak on West Bengal development

Indrani Dutta

Session organised by State government

Amartya Sen

KOLKATA: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will participate in a discussion here on the development of West Bengal, along with some other noted economists.

The discussion, being organised by the State government will be held in one of the biggest auditoriums in the city.

It will be conducted by Finance Minister Asim Kumar Dasgupta, himself an economist.

The topic is “Whither West Bengal’s development?”

Other participants in the discussion are economists Amiya Bagchi, Pranab Bardhan, Partha Chattopadhyay and Amit Mitra, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

To forge an opinion

The session, open to all, is being seen as an effort to forge an opinion on a subject that has become contentious of late for the State, after the high-voltage drama over acquisition of farmland for the Tata Nano project.

The stand taken by Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee on the issue of return of land led to the withdrawal of the project from the State, even as it put a question mark on the fate of the State’s industrialisation programme, an initiative that was flagged off by the former Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, but carried forward with vigour by his successor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Ms Banerjee is insisting even now that part of the Singur land be given through a global bid and the remaining 400 acres returned to the land losers.

Even as a dichotomy of opinion surfaced about the message that the Tatas exit sent to the world, senior industrialists, some of whom had lined up for investment here, said that those who wanted to set up industrial projects in the State would continue to do so.

Since October, when Tata group chief Ratan Tata announced the decision of Tata Motors’ pullout, at least one major unit, the steel project of the O P Jindal group, has kicked off and others are on the way, though the global meltdown has forced industries to rework their plans to ride out the economic trough that the financial crisis has triggered.

Mr. Bhattacharjee has expressed his keenness to interact with Professor Sen on the global financial crisis and its impact on India and States like West Bengal.