Sunday, July 15, 2012

Financial Hub

The last date of application for participation in the financial hub in New Town, Kolkata will be over on 31st July 2012. We are considering a fresh strategy to get participation of banks etc. Here are few reports that appeared in today's press:
Pratidin dated 15 July 2012
Times of India dated 15th July 2012
Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. AbhishekJuly 16, 2012 at 12:22 AM

    No hard feelings but an observation.

    I have been talking about a strategy like this for last 3 months. I mentioned about this twice in your blog but both the times you had quoted Shakespeare. With only 15 days left for the deadline, we are thinking of a strategy. Just think from the perspective of the financial institutions. Can they take a large investment decision in a time span of a fortnight? Or do we want to concentrate only on Govt banks?

    If we had planned properly from April onwards, when we had the first round of meetings with the banks, and done roadshows all across the world in New York, Tokyo, Dubai, Singapore and London....didnt we have a better chance of attracting bigger brand names?

    However if we are only hoping on Govt banks and thinking that we will exert our influence in Delhi to force some of the Govt banks to establish offices in the first phase of 25 acres, then its a different ball game altogether.

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    Replies
    1. gmJuly 25, 2012 at 7:38 AM

      For things like international fin hubs, where those step in they think of 50 years ahead and look a place and a hinterland which must have adequate infrastructure, sound economic potential and third its social fabric is stable and business friendly. I find the timing of the bid at this juncture is wrong that's why poor response . The current new govt is just getting cosy in their seats, not yet appears to be appeasing business. Infrastructure policy and execution in and around Rajarhat-Newtown is mostly on paper and here also no continuity of plan that earstwhile govt initiated. Further,Koltata needs a lot of media publicity( that we lack now) because Kolkata is a business history sheeter. One incident like in Maruti factory in Maneswar does not evoke industial panick as much if the same would have happened in Bengal. That's the baggage of history we carry. On the third issue,when PC comes and tell that on political violence we are top of the chart. There can be political disagreement, political debate but no violence.
      It is absolutely true as Bengal carry the baggage of history since pre-independence. This has changed from anti-British to anti-other party. Let's grow out of this vicious cycle and improve our social fabric.
      Out of all these issues, HIDCO has control over its infrastrcuture initiative. Let that happen then the response would be a bit better
      But a good news!MaCkinsey report June 2012 - upcoming Global Urban centers of 2025, Kolkata finds its mention along with Dhaka and Chitagong of Bangladesh. here is the link for download of full report. http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/mgi/research/urbanization/urban_world_cities_and_the_rise_of_the_consuming_class
      thanks

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  2. ArunMJuly 16, 2012 at 6:44 AM

    It was a bit fanciful to expect participation from International players, considering the government's stand on FDI, SEZ and Multinational companies.

    As far as local banks are concerned, it seems strange that even with the Union minister UD from the same political party, we were unable to gather support from banks and National companies.

    I think that we should have had a tie up with real estate consortiums for developing the Hub on some agreed partnership model. Why should the Government worry about all this ?

    HIDCO is already burdened with building roads, infrastructure, ECO-parks etc and now having to manage the Financial Hub was probably too much to expect.

    I think HIDCO should concentrated more on get the infrastructure issues like water, electricity, Sewerage, roads sorted first

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  3. AvickJuly 16, 2012 at 9:55 AM

    Full repot of Pratidin is here:
    http://epratidin.in/Details.aspx?id=8972&boxid=41811429

    TOI reconfirms the same today:
    http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-07-15/kolkata/32684998_1_financial-hub-rajarhat-new-town-hidco

    Why not e-Auction which makes participation from global/national institutions convenient?
    Also, Dr. Mitra might have carried some message back home from global business community to improve investment sentiments in Bengal....

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