Global business body comes to town - Mamata to speak at Horasis meet

Participants at the meeting in Calcutta on Sunday. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

TT, Calcutta: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will be the star attraction at the Horasis Asia meeting on Monday, when she will address a gathering of the region's senior leaders from the business community and the government on the state's priorities and policies towards an economic renaissance.

Horasis - to see, as in a vision, in ancient Greek - is a global community committed to enact visions for the future. The forum holds several meetings across the globe, including regional summits focusing on India and east Asia.

"This is the first time that Horasis has come to India and that too in Calcutta.... This means a lot," said Shaswat Goenka, the president of the Indian Chamber of Commerce, which is hosting the event along with the state government.

The fact that the Bengal government, which is actively scouting for business, has partnered with the event is an indication that it is keen on using the forum to reach out to business leaders from emerging markets and their global counterparts. On being invited as a speaker, the chief minister was scheduled to take part in the 2016 edition of Horasis Asia in Bangkok last November, but she opted out at the last moment to spearhead the protests against the Prime Minister's demonetisation decision.

Over the past few years, Mamata has been trying to promote business opportunities in Bengal, citing the geographical advantage of the state and its easy connectivity with east and southeast Asia. Though the state government has been holding its annual investor summit with much fanfare and the chief minister is herself touring several countries - Singapore, England, Germany and Scotland - getting investment into the state has remained an Achilles heel for the government.

"She is expected to roll out the government's policies and priorities and the business leaders will be keen to hear what the state has to offer," said a city-based businessman.

It is likely that Mamata will use the forum to seek participation of the chief executives of global companies in the state's annual investment summit, to be held in January 2018.

At the meeting on Sunday afternoon, the participants were busy brainstorming on several topics in parallel sessions that went through to the evening. Among several sessions, the one on "Valuing Unity in Diversity" threw up several takeaways, some of which Mamata has been stressing for sometime.

"There are so many elections in the country.... Can't all these elections be held on one day?" asked a participant at the session.

His question indicated that the politics surrounding elections have often come in the way of good economics. Mamata has, several times in the past, stressed on the same point, highlighting how electio