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The Fifth Economic Census report, however, puts Bengal among the top five industrialised states in India.
According to the report, the industrial environment in West Bengal is conducive for new investments.
The Department of Commerce, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, assessed on January 9, 2009 that 90 per cent of the state’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are either Information Technology or Information Technology Enabled Service companies.
There are eight notified, 13 in principal and 24 formally-approved SEZs in the state.
The state ranks sixth in the country in terms of literacy rate, which is 69.22 per cent. But the study also points out some of the weaknesses like how Bengal faced power deficiency to the tune of 3.7 per cent from April to November 2008 and state’s per capita income is much lower than the national average.
Bengal also does not have a robust institutional arrangement for public-private partnership.
Siddharth Das of Ernst and Young feels that Bengal recently has become a model for achieving human development through decentralisation and land reforms.
According to the report, despite being a late starter, the state was able to attract a considerable number of small and medium size enterprises in the IT sector, surpassing the national growth of 29 per cent with a significantly higher 45 per cent. In 2008, it was ranked as the third most attractive destination for IT firms in India.
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