Kolkata International Financial Hub

[studdmanster]

cc: http://principalsecretarysblog.blogspot.in/

"On 30th April, we came to know that the SBI Board has agreed to set up their international standard bankers' training institute in New Town. This will be on a 10 acre plot, adjoining the CBD / Financial Hub...Today a team from SBI led by CGM Kolkata, DGM Bidhannagar etc met me at Hidco Bhavan and handed over the cheque."

[Sumanb]

I hope SBI does a fresh investment and just don't shift the existing departments from the city to New Town - then the primary purpose of the Hub will be defeated.

[AbhishekDatta]

SBI buys 10 acre near Kolkata for Rs 58 crore to build training institute

KOLKATA: State Bank of India has acquired 10 acre at Rajarhat, the up and coming satellite township near Kolkata, to build a training institute. It has paid Rs 58 crore to the West Bengal government for the plot.

SBI said the training institute will come up near the proposed International Financial Hub at Rajarhat. Its chief general manager Suriender Kumar said the proposed institution will not only give training to its employees in the eastern zone, it will attract participants from banks in South East Asian countries and other neighbouring countries.

The country's largest bank has 2.20 lakh employees and training for such a large contingent is met through a two tier learning centres. It has international level institutes like the proposed one in Hyderabad, Gurgaon and Indore. It has learning centres established in 14 circles for imparting job knowledge, skill development and training to junior staffers.

The financial hub at Rajarhat will be the country's second after Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/12982109.cms

[Sumanb]

That' what I apprehended, training institute, though good is not fit for a financial hub. Good that they have not taken the land inside the hub as that would dilute the whole proposition (40% of the land occupied by a training institute) of a financial hub.

[studdmanster]

hmmm.......even the Principal Secy's blog said so!!

[Camouflage1989]

whats the status of this international financial hub???

[anan355]

Originally Posted by Camouflage1989

whats the status of this international financial hub???

The dates for submission of interest has been extended to 31st July.

http://principalsecretarysblog.blogs...and-plots.html

[Suncity]

What does the extension mean? That they are not getting proper responses? They should at least be able to persuade domestic financial institutions to set up offices here. It is true that Bandra Kurla complex is still under development. So I guess this project will also take its own time.

At least it will shut up political critics who used to jump up and down on why New Town has taken so long to develop forgetting similar cases all across India. It will make them realize that twitter e boro boro batela marlei kaaj hoye na. Neither do socialist style forcing companies to set up factories in Purulia or Bankura work. Investors don't take directions from the government or self declared intellectuals nowadays.

On a separate note, during the earlier days the media and a section of poltical experts used to create a lot of hue and cry about how costly land was in New Town. Have land prices been reduced to make it more palatable for so called investors now?

[anan355]

Originally Posted by Suncity

What does the extension mean? That they are not getting proper responses? They should at least be able to persuade domestic financial institutions to set up offices here.

This is exactly what I had asked Mr. Sen in the blog but he gave a mysterious reply which can signify anything.

What I feel strongly is that both LF and TMC lacks in one aspect. Proper marketing of the state.

Originally Posted by Suncity

On a separate note, during the earlier days the media and a section of poltical experts used to create a lot of hue and cry about how costly land was in New Town. Have land prices been reduced to make it more palatable for so called investors now?

Land price has touched a new height. Rs. 17 cr/ acre. Look at the comment by Mr. Sen. http://principalsecretarysblog.blogs...ion-again.html

[samrat_m]

Originally Posted by Suncity

What does the extension mean? That they are not getting proper responses? They should at least be able to persuade domestic financial institutions to set up offices here. It is true that Bandra Kurla complex is still under development. So I guess this project will also take its own time.

At least it will shut up political critics who used to jump up and down on why New Town has taken so long to develop forgetting similar cases all across India. It will make them realize that twitter e boro boro batela marlei kaaj hoye na. Neither do socialist style forcing companies to set up factories in Purulia or Bankura work. Investors don't take directions from the government or self declared intellectuals nowadays.

On a separate note, during the earlier days the media and a section of poltical experts used to create a lot of hue and cry about how costly land was in New Town. Have land prices been reduced to make it more palatable for so called investors now?

Darun bolecho.

Though it is true that New Town prices in general have escalated in recent times, the land rates inside Finance Centre is controlled by Govt & they should keep it low enough to induce investors. Besides, I had read that domestic banking institutions like Allahabad Bank, SBI, UCO Bank had all taken up plots there. What happened to them?? Why dont they start work?? Are they waiting for the infrastructure to be fully put in place, like roads etc??

[Sumanb]

The govt is going through the tender route to get the maximum price. So no question about UBI/UCO already got the land (exception is SBI, which is opening up a training center

The govt is doing the right thing to get the maximum return out of the plots. If enough interest is not there, they can reduce the reserve price. I think all the earlier hue & cry was wrong .... it didn't help then and will not help now.

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by Sumanb

The govt is going through the tender route to get the maximum price. So no question about UBI/UCO already got the land (exception is SBI, which is opening up a training center

The govt is doing the right thing to get the maximum return out of the plots. If enough interest is not there, they can reduce the reserve price. I think all the earlier hue & cry was wrong .... it didn't help then and will not help now.

They need to include more area under financial hub and promote the hub and different business summits and meetings. A mere 25 acre won't do anything good for the hub. It has to be at least 100 acres to be a hub for different entities. Hope Hidco is earmarking further land for this.

[Suncity]

ABP reports in today's edition that the response from financial institutions is lukewarm. Only one company has shown interest till now despite the deadline having been extended thrice. The state govt has spent Rs 3 crores in advertisements/publicity. As the final date is 31st July, there is still some time remaining for financial institutions to submit their applications.

[NiladriG]

Originally Posted by Suncity

ABP reports in today's edition that the response from financial institutions is lukewarm. Only one company has shown interest till now despite the deadline having been extended thrice. The state govt has spent Rs 3 crores in advertisements/publicity. As the final date is 31st July, there is still some time remaining for financial institutions to submit their applications.

Someone wrote on principal seceretary's blog that they need to promote the hub all over the country. The govt. in WB doesn't promote anything, be it tourism or financial hub. Unless they do aggressive promotion like Gujarat, business houses will stay away due to negative perception about WB. They need to highlight why it's different from other places and why it will be the benefits of setting up office here. Can't believe that IAS officers don't have this much IQ also.

[NiladriG]

Reflection of the lack of proper industrial policy.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/14917245.cms

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had laid the foundation stone of the international financial hub at Rajarhat New Town in March amid huge publicity and expectations. Four months have passed since then, but the much-hyped hub has managed to attract only a single investment proposal all this while.

Union minister of state for urban development Saugata Roy on Saturday said he will call an investors' meet in Delhi to convince them to invest their money on the hub. Speaking at a seminar on 'Densification of Cities', organised by Hidco on Saturday, Roy said , "The urban development ministry will hold a meeting in Delhi soon with big financial and banking institutes to discuss investment possibilities," Roy said.

With only a single application in its kitty, Hidco has now extended the deadline till July 31 for submitting applications for setting up offices in the financial hub. Big financial houses with an annual turnover of an excess of Rs 500 crore are eligible to set up offices in the hub.

The hub, when fully completed, will spread on 100 acre. In the first phase, it will come up on 25 acre only. Also, the floor space in Synthesis building, which is a part of the hub, will also be available for the companies interested in setting up units here.

At Saturday's seminar, Roy assured that the second phase of work under the JNNURM scheme will start off within a few months. The first phase of work is scheduled to be completed by 2014.

Speaking in the seminar, union urban development ministry secretary Sudhir Krishna said that the main challenge of urbanisation is to accommodate the increasing number of people. ther importance is to set up multi storied flats rather than individual plots to accommodate more people in the same area.

Focusing on New Town, it was reflected in the seminar that the city's transport system, overall look, growth and natural resources need to overhauled to attract investments. More stress should be given on community transport and look into checking pollution.

[Suncity]

In the previous version of Financial Hub, weren't many more Banks interested in setting up offices here? What's changed now? Let's see what finally materializes after July 31st.

[Rajarshi77]

To my mind following reasons weigh against the Newtown financial hub:

1) Weak economy- Out of the 4 geographical zones, Eastern part of India is the weakest in terms of economic strength. Hence requirement of banking/ financial sector to set up a large hub in Kolkata is limited.
2) Better options- People like conducive environment to do business. They wont like to have unpredictable political parties as rulers of the state. And in WB both the ruling and opposition parties are whimsical. Any long term investor will prefer cities like Ahmedabad who have stable government and consistent policies.
3) Mis-marketing- Who says our politicians are not marketing our state. They are marketing our state big time. But in a negative sense. They keep sending wrong signals (STAY AWAY) to investors.

[NiladriG]

There are no interest for financial hub because:

1. Too much political interference in everything.
2. No investor friendly policy.
3. Non-cooperation by the administration.
4. Unstable business environment.
5. Very poor promotion for the financial hub.

Govt. thinks that since Ma-Mati-manush sarkar has formed, investors will be running after them. In fact they are repeating the same mistake done by LF.

[AmitavaGhosh]

Originally Posted by NiladriG

There are no interest for financial hub because:

1. Too much political interference in everything.
2. No investor friendly policy.
3. Non-cooperation by the administration.
4. Unstable business environment.
5. Very poor promotion for the financial hub.

Govt. thinks that since Ma-Mati-manush sarkar has formed, investors will be running after them. In fact they are repeating the same mistake done by LF.

No, I don't agree with them..such problems are rampant everywhere in India..look at maruti gurgaon for instance; there were perennial problems in cotton mills in Mumbai;land acquisition is a problem almost everywhere;Bangalore has 3 CMs in the past 1 year;Hyderabad has a very serious telengana issue, but these things don't deter investment prospects there.
I agree governance plays an important part in industry.But I think that's just part of the problem.The real problem with bengal is it's argumentative elites and it's diaspora.They have created such a negative image about bengal to the rest of the world that we are still grappling to come out of problems which we had resolved long back.
I don't know what intellectual orgasm do they enjoy when they project Bengal in such a low light.Like, "look at the that goddam place we left, still fighting over communism, strikes, lock outs etc etc".
Such perceptions are hard to get over by, unless projected properly by the media and accentuated by the non resident bengalis to the investment fraternity(which, unfortunately, is mostly outside bengal).
I have stayed in all major Indian cities during the lat 5 years, and what really upsets me is that Kolkata as a city is much more fundamentally strong than many metro cities.Yet, investments scenario in Kolkata is bleak ; people still look down at Kolkata as a 'failed city'.
Say for example,
Electricity: Kolkata much better than gurgaon, hyd or bangalore.
Water availability: Probably the best city in this perspective.
Public transport : cheap;huge, if not in quality but quantity wise.Non existent in Gurgaon, autos are awful in bang,hyd.
Health: Very good network of private hospitals.
Strikes: We have put them behind.
Education:very good public colleges and private schools, also the private engg colleges are good.
Government:boisterous but stable.
Roads:Probably one aspect that Kolkata lacks behind.But it is good in sector 5 ,Rajarhat.

[Stranger99]

.. it looks like another project on its way to bite the dust. As Suncity correctly states marketing is the most important factor in todays world, this is more so for bengal especially after 30 yrs of Left rule that literally destroys the base of industrial structure of WB. But our honorable CM seems to be taking ahead the legacy of Jyoti Basu. 'Tata babu' der hatiye she came to power and now it seems she placed central govt in place of Left Govt (earlier) and continues her saster rajniti. Currently the entire political scenario is extremely bleak & unorganised in WB interms of overall activities. All the member in party seems to be busy making their didi happy. Just take a small example, after the Maruti suzuki manesar plant incident, when Modi is busy to convince Suzuki to shift the plant in Gujrat (i recently heard Jagadish Shettar & Prithviraj Chavan have also initiated the talk), did we hear anything from our political head? Not only that our media (Calcutta Telegraph - i read few days back, sorry can not provide the link) is busy in justifying the workers reaction is a subtle way!!! If this is the approach of our political parties as well as Media what more can we expect!!!!! On the other hand our CM & FM has been singing the song the 'Koti takar investment eseche' & per capita income of Bengal people is now higher that national avg.. (recently read some where in recently concluded TMC rally in Esplanade). such a joke. I know i asked this question many time but really does any one know what this billion doller investment they kept taking about? Any agreement or MoU has been signed? We get to hear atleast the fact during Budhdha's rule. Can anyone provide the facts. I really wanted to know on a serious note.