The newly formed West Bengal State Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has set three focus areas of work in the state in 2024-25.

The focus areas include training programmes for MSMEs in the state in collaboration with academic institutions, improving preparedness among MSMEs towards environment and sustainability and raising awareness of newer developments in information technology to enhance competitiveness and efficiency.

CII West Bengal State Council chairman Sandeep Kumar said: “Bengal has the second-highest number of MSMEs in the country after Uttar Pradesh. We propose to support the MSMEs in the state with training programmes in collaboration with academic institutions.”

Kumar, who is also the managing director of Tata Steel Downstream Products Limited, feels the second important focus area is sustainability and the importance of integrating it into the business operations. “It is increasingly becoming important that the industry in the state is aware of the developments relating to ESG,” he said.

“The third area is the digital side. The industry also has to be prepared to understand the impact of emerging areas such as robotics and artificial intelligence,” he added.

Debashis Dutta, director of BGS Group, has been elected the vice-chairman of the state council.

The various sectoral panels of the CII will advise the state council on the three focus areas to make Bengal a competitive hub. The council also announced projects in handicrafts and cluster development in Jhargram.