Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra on Monday told the Assembly that the state had been able to buck the national trend of an economic slowdown primarily because of a three-pronged strategy of unwavering focus on and prioritisation of capital expenditure, social schemes and labour-intensive policies.

Mitra was responding to questions from the Opposition on how the state had — according to his claims — been able to buck the national trend of a major slowdown over six consecutive quarters.

“At a time when the country’s growth rate has dropped to five percent, Bengal’s growth rate has been 12.58 percent... We have allocated huge sums to social infrastructure so that money goes into the hands of the poor and common people. This is because the marginal propensity to consume is very high among the poor people,” the minister said while laying the West Bengal Finance Bill, 2020.

“Second, we have laid stress on building physical infrastructure — increasing allocation by 14 per cent — thereby increasing the demand for products such as cement and steel... Most importantly, we have been emphatic on labour-intensive policies, which contribute to employability,” he added.

He cited instances of endeavours to generate jobs, such as a proposed logistics hub in Kalyani by Flipkart, which will employ 10,000 people, the second campus of TCS, which will employ 15,000 people, and a jewellery park in Howrah’s Ankurhati, which also has major employment potential.