The Bengal Business Council organized The Thought Leadership Roundtable on 16th May 2025. Mr. Vishal Bagaria, Chairman, AIRIA, Eastern Region, was invited to participate and deliver a short talk on the prospects of rubber industries, among fifty other sectorial delegations such as educational institutes like IIM-C and St Xavier's University, gems and jewellery association, cycle manufacturers' association, FOSMI, FEIO, hospitality sector (Peerless Group), business networking associations (BNI, CII-YI) etc.
The Bengal Business Council, officially registered as Bongiyo Antorjatik Banijyo Council, was established on July 16, 2021, with the aim of reviving and promoting entrepreneurship within the global Bengali community.
The central idea of the event was aligned with the Bengal Business Council's purpose to develop business growth in West Bengal. The event was graced by Shri Alapan Bandyopadhyay, Chief Advisor to the Hon'ble Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, who, in his keynote remarks, paid homage to the state's robust industrious past as the international mercantile hub during the British Empire.
Deliberations on many sectors touched on several themes, including industry academia collaboration, reversing brain drain of talent in Bengal, reinstating state subsidies for MSMEs and so on.
Mr. Bagaria, during his talk, introduced All India Rubber Industries Association to the gathering and remarked that non-tyre rubber drove infrastructure and industrial growth, in the form of products like conveyer belts, seals and gaskets, extruded profiles for vehicles, multiple items for PSUs like railways and defence procurement etc., but is still quite overlooked and ignored.
He went on to enlighten the audience about the dual challenges of growth potential alongside economic constraints. "Growth potential, through the presence of substantial infrastructure at Siliguri's rubber plantation hub, two major carbon black manufacturers, oil producers, and a large chemical manufacturer around Calcutta, positioning it to serve global markets; the 'INROAD' public-private partnership project that addressed supply concerns by developing rubber plantations across Northeast and West Bengal; and the South Asia Rubber and Polymer Park (SARPOL), a collaborative 96 acre industrial cluster in Howrah between the Union Ministry and West Bengal Government".
He stated that, "With 206 stakeholders from India's rubber industry, SARPOL anticipated Rs. 1500 crores in investment and over 10,000 jobs. Of 171 available plots, 131 have been allocated with several companies already operational".
"Economic constraints in the form of the tyre industry investing heavily in the neighbouring Northeast India and Siliguri for raw rubber manufacturing, whereas no tyre factories existed in Kolkata".
"He also mentioned that the region's former status as the leading rubber footwear exporter in 2003-2004 had declined significantly".
"He pointed further, that the solution presented itself in the government establishing anchor industry clusters in automobile, railway, and defence manufacturing sectors and industrial hubs, and to reinstate the paused MSME subsidies, that would trigger economic growth and productivity increases through industrialization".
Mr. Bagaria's talk was well-applauded by the present gathering.