Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said Bengal had emerged as one of the top destinations in the country in terms of attracting big-ticket
investments.

Quoting the 2024-25 annual report of the department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT), the chief minister wrote on her X-handle that Bengal had outpaced several major states and secured its place among the top three in terms of attracting big corporate industrial investment intentions.

“According to the latest report published by the Government of India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), West Bengal has been a front-runner State, and in the very top bracket among all states, in receiving concrete big industrial investment intentions,” she wrote.

“DPIIT annual report 2024-25 shows that, in terms of attracting (big) corporate industrial investment intentions, we have surpassed almost all other States in 2024. We have been among the top three in India,” added Mamata.

Sources in the state secretariat, Nabanna, said the report made the government’s top brass happy as it was trying to draw major industrial investments ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls to generate employment opportunities in Bengal that remained an Achilles heel for the ruling establishment.

Moreover, the report sent out a message that the government was trying hard to bring in investments here in the backdrop of the state’s success in developing the MSME sector in the past few years.

Mamata said the government had recently held the “most impressive” Bengal Global Business Summit in February where the state received investment proposals worth ₹4.4 lakh crore.

A section of the officials said receiving investment intentions or investment proposals generally showed a state’s effort for industrialisation, but Bengal needed to resolve a series of issues to convert the investment proposals into reality, including making land available for the prospective investors and offering a good incentive to investors.